No you got it right, those were the quotes that led me to purchase the disc.

If they actually meant "No DRM... after activating it on Steam" then Nordic's communication skills are either shady or simply not good enough, something I already suspect given their lack of transparency over the current state and the alleged fixes in the works for Darksiders 2.

Cheers for the link, I've just sent off an email.

Maybe they're referring to patching it fully?
But still that wouldn't be part of the initial installation...

Again I got ignored.

A number of PC retail releases - predominantly indie games - have both Steam and DRM-free versions present, although this fact will usually be indicated on the box.

Nordic Games has released DRM-free versions of PC games in the past few years, but most require Steam, and none have had both DRM-free and Steam in the box. Looking at the Amazon Germany page for the game, I see that people are reporting that the retail version is, indeed, Steam-only.

Being DRM free on that list doesn't exclude the requirement for the Steam client in the first place. Which is just not acceptable for a physical release, and is what I'm actually trying to determine the state of.

Probably because it wasn't what he was looking for? :P
That might actually be what they were referring to though if DRM-Free was mentioned.

Which was exactly my point.

Yep, that's what they meant.

Yeah, I was going off very vague memory with regards to what I heard of The Witcher III.

Damn, I though there was a section on each game's Steam store page mentioning what kind of DRM it has? Or does that only appear if the game has DRM measures, or maybe it even varies from game to game if it show such info? I was hoping it'd have a section like I've seen in other shops where it says "DRM: NONE", or "DRM: U-PLAY and STARFORCE ", or whatever. :\

If it's true that the disc requires Steam, then Nordic are officially on my shit list. They were already teetering after they wrecked Darksiders 2, but this will be the last straw.

Then this would be a much better place for this post - http://forum.nordicgames.at/

This is gOg, not Nordic.

Well there is a Nordic rep that occasionally posts in their release topics.
Also it's GOG, not gOg I think.

Steam does have DRM warnings, but never for their own DRM. :P
They also don't indicate whether a game can be played without the Steam client; this is all unofficial (or quasi-official with some developers) stuff.
They do indicate (not consistently) what third-party DRM is a game using like GFWL, Kalypso Launcher, Rockstar Social Club, SecuROM, Uplay, etc.

You're right, and I've already sent a message to them. I just know there's a Nordic rep floating around the GOG forums... and I thought I'd throw that in there.