Because we all know that online activations and non-functional retail boxes and online accounts required for patches do not count as DRM, fight against the other evil things!

Fight, comrades, don't give in to the evil lords!

With patches it's tricky, where should they put them? I don't really agree with disabling retail boxes until launch... but I can understand. And as long as I can install/reinstall/play the game offline after downloading the patches that i need I'm fully content with that.

Where they also put the patches for the other Witcher games? Like for example, CDPR's site?

I still don't understand the problem. You have a GOG account right? So it's not a problem to download the patches...

Other people might have to start an account to download the patches. It's not exactly cool.

Shipping a 'DRM-free' retail game that's non-functional out of the box is bullshit. And this flies in the face of what CD Projekt has been saying about DRM. Now, it looks like nothing more than posturing and finger-pointing at the other guys: "Oooh, look, they're using DRM. Us, well, no that's different, see, 'cuz we're all about the gamers".

It is forcing retail customers to create an account on GOG which is what Steam does. The people that still buy games on retail mostly do so to avoid needing to create an account on a website just to recieve update patches and DLC content. There is simply no choice in this matter so instead of the GOG code being an added feature as intended it ends up being a necessity.

Me, yes. Other people who don't want to create an account on GOG?

Where exactly was it stated that that a GOG account was needed to patch the game? Just curious.

Source.

As some people praise DRM-Free, it is still a cancer for developers, because PC piracy is huge. Already there is almost all if not all GOG games floating in the internet for free. As I do not like the way games are shipped nowadays, I completely understand developers on these actions. Nobody wants their products to float for free in the market.

The reason developers ship uncomplete retail copies, because retail discs are printed way before release date and resellers acquiring them also before initial release. In history of game releases there were numerous times when pirated and working copies of the game reached internet way before a release date.

I see no problem with any DRM or similar stuff, if on release day I can play my bought game without problems, I am happy with it.

No it's not.

Just as there are all other games floating the internet for free, DRM non-withstanding. Oh, right, that's not true - pirates always get DRM-free version.

Except for Hotline Miami devs. I'm sure there are many more.

It's very likely that by the time discs with Withcer 3 were printed, the game was already in gold status.

Of course, aside from the little problem that you can never just install and play The Witcher 3 from the disc without GOG existing - unless you burn the DRM-free installer from GOG on your own devices, which you should never be forced to do after purchasing a game which claims to be DRM-free.

Now I don't mind Steam DRM, so I wouldn't particularily mind this - is CD Project didn't explicitly state that Witcher 3 will have no DRM, even retail versions. I don't give a shit about a company wanting to protect its assets when, just a tiny bit before, they publically claimed contrary.

This is the main problem I have with this whole thing as well. The discs on those first batch are basically useless, and they were bought by their biggest fans who probably wanted to treasure the disc version (as I'd expect them to be quite anti DRM). I'd even call it false advertising.

That said, I find contradicting statements on Grargar's source FAQ. First batch of discs needs an update for so-not-DRM reasons. Updates will be provided through GOG only, so you require an account to get them. But they claim the game is playable from disc without using the GOG account at all. How is that possible? Unless that third statement applies only to discs after the first batch.

A possibility will be that while the unlock file can be provided from anywhere else, the patches themselves will be GOG-only. Having said that, a post from Fallen_Zen, indicates that Witcher 3 will have an auto-update function, which raises the question of whether GOG is really needed.

Witcher 2 had auto-update functionality as well and for it to work, you needed to log-in to GOG trough the launcher.