Damn. First I've heard of this. I usually have internet, but if I wanted to play offline, I darn well wanted the capability to do so!
I'm one of the "disappointed". Not sure if I'll request a refund, but going back on their word is a big no-no. I won't be buying anything else from them.
They need to put their big boy britches on, and keep their promises.

Always-online DRM, no singleplayer... goodbye E:D

I think I'll stick with classics like Freespace 2, Freelancer, Wing Commander and other like these.

Booooh ! What a shitty thing to do !

I so would have loved to enjoy this space games revival... Well Limit Theory and Squadron 42 is the way to go now...

Requesting my refund and bye bye Braben...

I sent my refund request in.

Exactly the type of BS that has me avoid any and all "kickstart" type of pre-funding.

I DO want to see EXACTLY what I'll get before THEY get a dime of my funds.

And it's been obvious multiple times now with various "kickstart" projects that what they SAY you will get and what you DO GET are often very different things.

By avoiding the whole BS I can then see what they deliver and THEN decide if I want.

K.M.A. Elite Dangerous! (and all you other "kickstart" projects that change your promises)

Was always bothered by the multiplayer focus of the game. I'll just wait for Egosoft to wake up and make a real X4.

It will all depend on how good the online mode will be then.

I expect it will be in the line of flying out of a space station to explore those millions of star systems, one minute later "YOU ARE BEING SCANNED!"...... BOOOOM!!!..... rinse and repeat.

I actually hope I'm wrong but I expect the servers to close shop after two years or so, after having been desolately populated for much longer.

They're free to label me whatever they want. :)

This +1

Wow couldn't they have informed us sooner they had no intentions of an offline mode. I guess in their eyes that may be a stupid tactic and they wouldn't have be able to use the funding from backers that wanted offline mode.

This may just be an innocent oversight, but the timing of this news just a few weeks before release makes me skeptical. Also the requirement to be online also benefits one of their potential goals of displaying in-game advertising:

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=14966

That does seem like they have removed a promised feature. Though in hind sight ED always has seemed as a MMO to me rather than solo game. I am still interested about it though.

Wow that's pretty terrible... Will the developer FD give any refunds though? Kickstarter doesn't enforce refunds AFAIK

Pretty much anything with micro-transactions eats a dick IMO.

I'm not even 100% opposed to added DLC as long as the "base" game is worth the money and the DLC adds something I find enjoyable. but those micro-transactions have GOT to go, they pretty much ruin any type of multiplayer game.

Reminds me Planetary Annihilation.

***EDIT***
Thanks to Solei and RadonGOG, I was wrong about PA. Sorry :/
***EDIT***

What is pretty disappointing in these news, is how developpers have completely failed to understand why they were successful in Kickstarter.

We don't need any new MMO. We already have too much now. And there are more and more coming without the need of crowdfunding.
Seriously.

What we needed are new solo experiences. Yeah that thing that any new hipster and publisher think "it isn't the future, future is connected all the way".

But coming to crowfound multiplayer only?
To those developers : Stay away from crowdfunding sources, please.