It doesn't always have to be online, they took that requirement away before the console almost came out. Games do have to be installed, but only partially if you didn't purchase it digitally. The downloads do take a while, but you can set it to download while its off and it can still download while you're playing other games, even if the games are online. I bought it for Halo Master Chief Collection, specifically the Halo 2 Anniversary. I've been really happy with it. Plus there's good F2P content like Warframe and Neverwinter, and now the Project Spark is completely free, its even better. There's a lot of other cool features too. They're coming out with a DVR for tv shows as well, so you can save money by not needing to pay for TiVo or TWC's DVR. I would save up and wait for black Friday deals.