I posted this on the Gears forums as well, but I know TC members are watching this thread so I wanted to post it here as well.
Can you send a message up the chain for us? For Gears 5, please let everything be playable without an internet connection. I realize the support pack things are your extra revenue, but you are effectively putting an expiration date on your game. At some point, the servers will be shut off. That means there will be no more Horde 3.0 ever again. I think its reasonable to expect gamers to understand this for a game like Overwatch where there is no single-player content whatsoever, or even World of Warcraft where you are obviously playing a game that demands a server with other active players to do quests with. Those games will go away one day and I think people understand that because the only experience they've ever known with them has been to play them online with other people.
That said, Gears 3 Horde can be played anytime, regardless of server status. Same with Gears 2. I think Gears fans expect that tradition to continue so to learn that they can only play the game when the conditions are right is a real disappointment. I have great internet speed but from time to time my connection will have an issue. Its not very often honestly, but it happens. Sometimes it will happen on the only night I get to play games. Another thing to consider is that Xbox LIVE occassionally gets hacked and is down for days at a time. When you're reliant on game servers, you aren't in control of your own fun and that's the problem.
One of the reasons I discovered playing solo Horde in Gears 3 is the online community dried up and finding a game with other people meant playing on a limited selection of maps with people who would likely drop after 5-10 waves. I eventually got tired of feeling like I was wasting my time and I began to play solo, which turned out to be a ton of fun. I understand that I can continue to play alone if matchmaking starts to dry up down the road, but I still don't appreciate that I'll need to be online to do it because sometimes I just won't be able to. I am 36 years old with adult responsibilities. I am not a kid who can play hours at a time on any night of the week. Its easy to say "Ah go do something else!" but most of the time I've BEEN doing something else the rest of the week and now I want to play. Nobody wants to be told they can't play the game they bought because the internet is down or Xbox Live was hacked or the game's servers are not functional.
Another thing that I think is greatly undervalued is the ability to have a LAN party. I hosted a space for two years at the Midwest Gaming Classic back in 2012 and 2013 and we had Gears 3 Horde running on 3 linked setups (2 split-screen and one solo screen). There was no way to connect to the internet, but we didn't need to because the game can be played offline. I see a trend in general gaming now where people are more vocal about their love for co-op (VS used to be the only thing you'd ever hear about) and I think Gears 4 will miss out on a great opportunity for fan events like this. PAX has 4 shows every year and in a few weeks I'll be hitting the Portland Retro Gaming Expo. Gears 4 could have had awesome Horde LAN parties where people who overlooked the game as this competitive e-sports thing would have seen something more appealing to them in Horde and maybe those people could have been new fans. Not to mention the fans that put these things together would grow a deeper appreciation for the game through these get-togethers. Horde is a really undervalued mode that could be utilized to grow the Gears community and the need for an internet connection for these parties is a barrier it didn't need.
Please take all this into consideration for the next game. I'm still excited for the game but the online only trend is one that I think a lot of players are ready to see go away. Thanks for hearing me out and I'll see you in Horde 3.0!