My Internet has been down for more than a week. No Internet, only two sputtering TV channels, no problem, I'll just play more Borderlands 2 ... Wrong! To my great disappointment I discovered that none of my Borderlands 2 DLC is playable offline. Not the DLC purchased from Marketplace registered to my console or the content installed from the Game of the Year edition of Borderlands 2. My game save could not be accessed because it included game play from the DLC. I only play Borderlands 2 single player, never online, so Xbox Live access should never be a requirement, but it is. Yet the Marketplace nor the GotY edition of Borderlands 2 makes any mention that Xbox Live access is required for local single player game play. I know from experience that these GotY editions of games require Xbox Live updates before initial installs, and even this is sticking it to the consumer. I could understand not wanting to create an updated game disk, but the update patch files should be on the DLC disk along with the DLC. But requiring Xbox Live access for registered DLC local game play is inexcusable. In the future there are a few absolutes: Xbox Live will stop supporting the 360 and Borderlands 2, Xbox Live will cease to exist, I will not have broadband Internet access, and I will still want to play Borderlands 2 including the DLC.
A friend came across the same situation when his Internet went out and was unable to play his DLC for Forza 2 and Call of Duty and he is of the opinion that all DLC is unplayable offline, but I do not agree. My 'Dishonored' is still showing the DLC in the menu, although I have not tried to play it because I have a game save in progress. I cannot test my other DLC because it is registered to my older Pro model 360 which I no longer have and I cannot transfer my licenses to my 360 slim because license transfer does not transfer console to console, but profile to console, which would wipe out the licenses on two other 360's. Granted these two other 360's are never online, but some of the content has been deleted to make hard drive space and I may want to download the content to them again which won't work if the licenses are transferred to my 360 slim. Bad, bad Microsoft!
My only option is to mod one of my 360's to insure that I will always be able to play my games, including my Indie games which require Xbox Live access to play, and this is a royal pain and something I should not have to do. I will probably use my vintage launch 360, a fine choice for winter gaming, since that console could heat my entire room. In the past, and this is only my opinion, the Sony PS2 and PS3 were not viable options, yet the PS2 dominated and the PS3 user base eventually caught up with the 360 (or surpassed it if you don't count all the dead 360's or people who upgraded from the 360 to the PS3). For the first time, with the PS4, Sony has the better hardware, and when the software catches up I hope Microsoft gets their backsides kicked. Why? Because maybe then Microsoft will clean up their act and stop trying to shaft their user base whenever they think no one is looking.