Now I know there is split-screen In escape but that does not confirm anything in the day and age.
It’s one of these things game devs avoid talking about like the plague. But it’s not spoilers or revealing anything. It’s all for player usability.
Answer.
Online Only
On the MP live feed from TC, One of the developers stated only Campaign could be played off line, Sorry 
So we have 3 player split screen in escape but no offline ??? O.o Thats nuts. I wish they would just slow down how you earn points/progress so It’s just slower offline. Maybe just don’t alow progression at all and instead just have slow rank and skill increases, but no contribution to the season skins\rewards. As that is a online thing that would need constant update to work.
If not that just freeze all progressions.
The last thing offline players are thinking about is flexing new skins swag and rank. Just have some ingame unlocks like gears 3 for offline players. (get 1000 kills across horde Campaign and escape) like kill milestones, or play time milestones. Things that require just having fun to get (If cheaters wanna cheat getting 1000 kills acros 3 modes… I don’t think they can function lol)
There is ways of doing shared progression by giving offline players passive rewards that really anyone can get with game play. I don’t speak for people but i’m sure No offline player would have a problem Not ranking up or getting steel as long as there is some minestrones to achieve for just playing/gameplay unlocks, missing out on season reward and rank is basically irrelevant at that point
Shared Progression in games Is really hurting the offline audience. That limits you to 1 out of 4 modes for people who pick this up for local co op and campain. Cheaters ,~, they ruining the games for all of us even when they have not even had a chance to cheat yet
Thanks for the swift reply though❤
I agree with your points, I’m sure most of us do.
I have spent hundreds if not thousands of hours across Horde, 2.0 (still play this ),Beast etc offline and enjoyed every moment.
Don’t 100% take my word for it though, certainly 95% as I may have misunderstood. 
Only time will tell. Horde reveal is coming up soon so. Hopefully, they will answer directly instead of light deflection. I just wanna hear them say," Yes\No here is why"
Don’t worry if you are wrong, I will slide into you with a Gnasher
What I want to hear with 4.0
“We have Locust back”
“We have more than a poxy 4 Bosses from Gears 4, some maps only 3 Bosses!”
“We have more wave diversity”
“We have mutators back”
…Is that too much to ask, well is it TC 
Its online only because the servers run the AI otherwise they wouldnt be able to hit the 60fps (as per TC)…
I thought as much. The thing is Gears 3 STILL looks lovely and plays offline.Do 50 waves on Sandbar, it is glorious. I know it is not as simplistic as that, just wish it was.
Wait a minute even versus? No custom offline lan versus with bots and split screen like in Gears 4?
I have a feeling we’ll be disappointed
Cheaters will always find a way while the rest of us that don’t do this are basically treated like potential criminals which is something I feel should not be rewarded cause it’s no way to treat your customers especially the ones that have been long time fans and have been loyal.
Versus MP can be played offline too.
No, versus does has offline.
Phew that’s a relief 
I believe the reason for no Horde offline is the reason they gave for Gears 4, that a lot of stuff is offloaded to the servers, and it’s needed to run properly because it’d be too big of a hit to performance without the servers.
Wait only online because Ai? Vs Bots? Campaign bots? That make no sense
I figured they could’ve just made a different version of horde for offline that simply has everything unlocked and maxed out since there’s no progression for offline anyways.
I believe it may be more than AI, they’ve gone into more detail on it in the early Gears 4 days, I don’t recall it all though.
TC stated that the server is running the bot AI in horde/escape. Its obviously not running it in Campaign, otherwise it wouldnt be capable of offline.
So basically Gears 5 has two modes available offline which is Campaign and versus which is at least better than just being Campaign by itself, hopefully I can customize my stuff offline too unlike in Gears 4.