why can i not play battlefield 2042 without a box live membership

Hi @toffee012 This particular Battlefield game is online-only. The solo/coop mode runs on a server, so won't run offline, and you need a multiplayer subscription to play due to that.

ETA: In this case you might want to contact the retailer to ask about their refund policy.

@ElliotLHWhy cant bf not do it for people that love the game but can not keep buying member ships to play it. It a extra cost. It would not take very long to code it and it might help with people that play offline as it dose not have a campaign

@toffee012 It's just the way they decided to do things for this game with everything requiring connecting to a server to play.

While I do honestly feel for you that you can't play the game offline, the choices are basically either getting a subscription or trying to obtain a refund from where you bought it.

Also, I'm not an EA employee I'm afraid. I just volunteer to help on the forums.

I got it years ago just playing something else.

It is a great shame they did thing so wrong o. This game no campaign as some bf game campaigns where great to play

If you purchased the game and own it, you should be able to launch the game from the EA Play app directly. It will be in your library. You do not need Xbox Live or GamePass to play the game. If you do not actually own the game and only received access to it through GamePass, then yes, you cannot play it. You can pick up an EA Play/Origin game key online at various places for ~$18 or less typically.

Very true always hated to pay extra just to play online with friends loved the PS3 could play online with no cost did not have playstation plus back in the day

How Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo advertise online multiplayer as something that their subscription services provides is laughable.  Even with all of the so called "free games" that some of these subscriptions provide to players.  These corporations know without a doubt that online multiplayer and our addiction to the online games that we love is the most valuable thing locked behind the paywall for these subscriptions.  They block their console users from online because apparently they can, and then charge these same users to lift the barrier that they put there.   When it is your purchased EA game that is on the console, your internet provider, and EA's servers that are delivering the Battlefield experience.   

You can't play Battlefield 2042 on Xbox without a Live subscription because even though the truth is out there.  The majority of people using the platform don't mind paying for the subscription.  So you have to as well as subscription services to access online multiplayer for most games on consoles has become the standard for over the last 20 years. 

I used to tell myself paying $60 a year for PlayStation and Xbox multiplayer is worth it, because it provided a cheat free online gaming experience.

Then crossplay with PC came along and now we're paying $60 a year to play with cheaters.