After speaking with Bungie's Doug Zartman on the reports at Blue's News and Gamefan about Oni netplay being scrapped, we have some mixed news. Yes, those reports are true--the sentiment around here is universally do it properly, or don't do it all. Due to the latency issues with Oni's netplay (apparently there were modem builds, and they simply didn't work out), it was decided that internet play wasn't going to work out. And due to the investment in time required to create netmaps and netgames for LAN players, LAN play was shelved in the interest of concentrating on the solo game.
There is, however, a ray of hope. Doug mentioned that Bungie may return to the engine, presumably post release, and revisit the netplay problems. They certainly do recognize the awesome netplay potential of this game, and netplay has been done, so such a thing isn't completely out of the question. No promises, though... stay tuned.