They felt like the pros of always online outweighed the cons. Here's a few of the pros that aren't listed since you already listed some of the obvious cons to always online: Less hacking/glitching/duping. If you look at games like Borderlands 2 and Diablo 3 (on console). By allowing the game to be hosted on your own machine, people can hack the local save file and put in overpowered equipment, which in some peoples' opinion ruins a game. I agree with that. Another pro is progress saving. You've just beat the meanest, baddest raid ever and were lucky enough to get an amazing exotic. Woot! Great job! But wait, power outage and your console shut off before you could save. Nooo! Or your console fries, HDD dies, etc list goes on. You lost everything. Always online stores your save on their side. Safer that way. Better game quality. By being always online, they can statistically track gameplay. Are people falling through the earth and dying in the same spit repeatedly? Let's patch that. Are hand cannons used by less than 5% of the player base? Let's buff them to equal them out with other weapons. On the fly. No immediate patch required! Anyways, I see your cons and don't deny that they are valid points. There are advantages and disadvantages to only online. Bungie and Activision came to the conclusion that their product would be better or make more money by always being online. I personally don't mind but I can see where you're coming from.