Even the best intentions aren’t enough to keep your game on track in the modern age of gaming. With massive sprawling worlds and stories, continuity becomes an issue when you want to include a single player component in your predominantly online game. Unfortunately, Elite:Dangerous will no longer be offering a single player component when the game launches next month, despite promises of its inclusion.
The official Frontier Newsletter explains the reason that single player content is being cut from the game, it reads “A fully offline experience would be unacceptably limited and static compared to the dynamic, ever unfolding experience we are delivering. Galaxy, story, missions, have to match, and it does mean the single player has to connect to the server from time to time, but this has the added advantage that everyone can participate in the activities that can happen in the galaxy,”
So while you may have been looking forward to an expansive galaxy spanning single player narrative, it was contrary to the central pillars of the games design. And that’s a pity.
[Source]