Unfortunately, the official word is that this is working as intended, and the Celebration Edition requires an online connection to verify the unlocked content. It does not actually unlock the content for offline play. There is an ongoing discussion regarding this topic on the official forums at:
https://battlefront-forums.ea.com/discussion/156230/terrible-celebration-edition-issue
That's crazy. If the edition is purchased why would it not be treated as if you bought the game from the store? Buying the hard copy would allow for the skins to be unlocked offline. This is very deceptive.
The reason it does an online check is because it verifies you actually own the DLC on your account. It's basically an anti-piracy measure, as if it didn't exist people would be circumventing the microtransactions by sharing the DLC files, either through windows explorer or game sharing on Xbox (something I was guilty of with the first EA Battlefront). It sucks, but that's how it is.
Buying a skin through credits basically flags it in your actual save file, buying the Celebration Edition is basically a DLC file that tells the game to unlock them all for you once ownership is verified. @jholden2004 while it does suck, there's nothing deceptive about it at all- it DOES state in the terms and conditions when purchasing that internet connection is required. Just because something doesn't work the way you want it to, doesn't make it deceptive or false marketing.
