The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Retail PC Version FAQ

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Unfortunately, I see a shitstorm coming your way...
I believe you that you mean well and I myself as a heavy Steam user am not bothered by it, but some people might be really offended by this code.

Effectively you are undermining second-hand sales with this code. Someone who buys a retail copy without this code second-hand will be really screwd (not the pirates, they will have their updated builds anyway).

Until now your mantra was: Pirates are not our concern, we want to convince our loyal customers with quality products.
Now you're saying: We need a code to protect ourselves from pirates.
That's a huge difference for some people.

And another thought:
Why do you even risk this shitstorm for a few retail copies anyway?
Yes, your retail copies come with a lot of extras, but in the end the big majority will buy the game on GOG and even Steam, where there isn't even an option to sell it second-hand.
So why risk this potential shitstorm? You could have been the shining white knight of PC-Gaming once more, now some people will have very bitter thoughts about this.
 
Until now your mantra was: Pirates are not our concern, we want to convince our loyal customers with quality products.
Now you're saying: We need a code to protect ourselves from pirates.
That's a huge difference for some people.

They are protecting their game of being leaked before the official release date ...

After the damn release date, like momot said, the retail versions will NO LONGER have this feature ...


Edit: I may have misunderstood you, if you meant that GOG codes are bad, then that is your opinion, my bad.
 
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They are protecting their game of being leaked before the official release date ...

After the damn release date, like momot said, the retail versions will NO LONGER have this feature ...
The FAQ states that only the pre-release-version will need to download some small files for playing, it doesn't say that post-release-versions will come without a code for downloading patches and so on.

Edit: OK, that makes it clearer. I don't think GOG codes are bad, I think they are fantastic additions and very welcome :) But I think binding patches to the GOG code might not be very well received.
 
The FAQ states that only the pre-release-version will need to download some small files for playing, it doesn't say that post-release-versions will come without a code for downloading patches and so on.

Alright, I misunderstood your post, my bad, I can understand where you are coming from now.
 
As someone who has long "caved in" to Steam, Origin and co. I don't mind this anyhow, but I can see how people, who just wanted to pick up the retail version might be upset about it and it also feels like CDProjekt is giving up the DRM free policy as much as I understand their reason for doing it.
 
I don't see what all the fuzz is about. You don't need to be online all the time if you have activated your GOG code. Obviously you have to be online to update your game.

In this scenario I'm on team CDPR side.
 
What the... I mean, if you are offline-gamer, then you won't do the patches anyway, so there are no problems in that regard (And you won't have access to DLCs as well, as you are offline). If you want to play the game in the first day, you are going to have to download - somehow - a small file, which might provide a problem. But you can wait a few days and buy from the second batch if you can't download a small file (Maybe this aspect should be emphasized publicly though, to let people know). So I can't really see a problem here. They are still trying to convince people not to pirate with extra content (patches, DLCs, goodies, etc.). It's just the fact that, now that most extra stuff are digital, they need to provide a way so that pirates won't have access to that stuff (not with a snap of fingers at least). And you can still play the main game without any cracks, or serial keys.

I seriously can't see the problem, other than the fact that some players who pre-ordered the product and have NO internet connection - not even for a small file - won't be informed about this.

Well, you could always use a wifi hotspot or go to a net caffe and dl that file from a dedicated website on a usb meory or a smartphone's memory... personally i don't see a problem and understand cdproject wanting to protect themselves from a leak by journalists or production manufacturers... that would be catastrophic for sales....

Yeah of course, I completely agree with you. But I still think it needs to be emphasized, so that people who really can't access the internet in any way (Although not sure if any buyer of the Witcher 3 is that way...) would know about this, and wait for the second batch. Just to dodge the bad press this would provide.
 
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I seriously can't see the problem, other than the fact that some players who pre-ordered the product and have NO internet connection - not even for a small file - won't be informed about this.
Well, you could always use a wifi hotspot or go to a net caffe and dl that file from a dedicated website onto a usb meory or a smartphone's memory... personally i don't see a problem and understand cdproject wanting to protect themselves from a leak by journalists or production manufacturers... that would be catastrophic for sales....
 
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Why would anyone even buy a GOG.com backup copy code? That makes no sense. Unless you're literally buying yourself better feeling about yourself. Pirating the game, as it's without DRM is effectively exactly the same thing. You just get better download speed via torrent :)D).

I fail to understand the cryfest about the needed download either. I mean, would someone actually rather see the game DRM free "in the wild" a week or so before release, if ANY SINGLE BOXED COPY could be dropped online for anyone to enjoy? That's gonna happen immediately after the release anyway. There won't be any "cracked pirate version", as there won't be anything to crack... I'm sure as hell gonna preload the eventual torrent as GOG.com's servers are gonna crash and burn when the preload is possible. Bought the game, so I don't see anything wrong with it, nor do I see anything wrong downloading the eventual patches torrented.
 
Q: Will I be able to install updates and the free DLCs without using the GOG.com game code?
We decided to offer software support, DLCs, and extra goodies only to gamers who confirm their purchase with the provided game code on GOG.com. This is the only way for us to differentiate between you, honest gamers who bought our game, and pirates who snatched it from the Internet.

Thank you for the answers, @Marcin Momot. I've one more question, though. I have a very poor internet connexion-speed, which sometimes fails altogether, and, as a result, large files can frequently take a very long time. (It takes about an hour to download a single gigabyte.) Is it yet known what the average size of some of these early patches, and DLCs may be? Will any of them exceed 5 GB at a time? Thanks.
 
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Wow, that does put them between a hardplace and a rock. Cause if they had the physical version with fully on the disk, there would be leaked versions of the game out right now, and the pirates would be playing the game right now, while the legit buyers still have to wait to play the game. At the same time, I can see how this system can technically be called DRM, which is something they are against.
 
You just made me an offer I could not refuse - I always actually wanted a box to to sit on my shelf next to TW1 and TW2, but when the preorder started on GoG last year, your conference live stream somehow bypassed my brain and made me preorder the game on GoG instead of a physical copy. And now you tell me I can have both - well, shut up and give me my money back so you can take it again.
 
What? needs to download a file from our servers to allow play.What?

So buy the retail PC game and then sell the code. Seems like the code has more value than the actual retail product, so you can get a good price for it whereby making the price of the retail PC game less.

So when do I buy the retail PC copy that doesn't need the internet to work? You know the product that I wanted.

Now I have to tell all the people who doesn't have internet, to not buy the game. I got these people to pre-order the game because no internet would be needed and now I have to say oops.

All I want to know is when can I buy the product that I wanted with no internet needed? Will it be labeled? How will I know? Do I have to wait months?

From so excited for this product to figuring out how to get rid of it. Like wtf, buy it install it sell it and then wait for the product I wanted to buy in the first place. I don't get it. Oh for the pirates who wasn't going to buy it in the first place.

Sorry dude but anyone runing a rig good enough to play this game and says they have no internet access are either doing so to pirate games or to poor to be playing games period and should reevaluate what you are spending money on... I go with the pirates over the poor stick anyways and any real gamer would find a way to connect their system just for updates anyways lol Get over it dude, no game goes live today without some DL file to make it work!

---------- Updated at 07:33 PM ----------

---------- Updated at 07:34 PM ----------

So basically, don't preorder if you don't want online activation?

That's a weird marketing model, if I may say so. I don't really like it as a security measure either. Couldn't this be done with good old activation codes, if you didn't want it lo leak during production?

There rest is pretty much "if you have Internet to download a patch, you have Internet to verify the game", so I guess I'm fine with it. Still, I don't think pirates will be unable to work around all this anyway...

activation codes can be cracked with a crack file, old school pirate, they are being very smart!

---------- Updated at 07:39 PM ----------

Don't nit pick my comments. Don't dance around the other issues I brought up. I know delaying is not an option.

Now. What do I care about leaks. What do I care about pirates. What do I care about online people. I care about the product in retail. As it stands, day 1, codes and retail product will be up for sale, secondhand. As it stands the offline buyers are cut off.

Anyway. I have said what I wanted to say. The Witcher 3 PC retail product cuts off the offline gamers. And Dragonbird doesn't care because that number is small or so he says.

I just want to know when the second batch is coming out, so that I can know when to buy the product I wanted.

Only reason offline gamers want this is 1 they are to poor for internet, least cause i bet ya, 2nd and biggest reason for your version of the game that you want is so people can share one copy amoung friends, any idiot can figure that out :p

---------- Updated at 07:43 PM ----------

Yeah, I'm actually unsure about one thing - if you don't want a gog account, but you do want the updates and DLC, could you just use the verification code to authorise the downloads, without having to make a gog account and claim a backup copy. Because it sounds like you must create a gog account in order to get patches legitimately.

It would make sense to link them, it is better and far less annoying then DRM.
 
There are a lot of smaller retailers, which sell games earlier to get an advantage over the big stores and websites like amazon. Witcher 3 has no DRM. Just imagine someone would get the game a few days earlier and upload it on the pirate websites or make it available through torrent. It's completely understandable that CDP want's to prevent that software pirates play their game before the people who actually bought it. Especially because even some of them could cancel their preorder if they can get it earlier& for free.
 
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There are a lot of smaller retailers, which sell games earlier to get an advantage over the big stores and websites like amazon. Witcher 3 has no DRM. Just imagine someone would get the game a few days earlier and upload it on the pirate websites or make it available through torrent. It's completely understandable that CDP want's to prevent that software pirates play their game before the people who actually bought it. Especially because even some of them could cancel their preorder if they can get it earlier& for free.

If they didn't do what they did, the pirates would be playing the game right now. The game would have leaked from the processing plants that print the physical versions.
 
Ok, I can accept the initial retail release requiring that small file - but I have a few questions.

1. Exactly how small are we talking? KBs? MBs?

2. Will there be a way to patch the game disc itself, so that the file won't need to be present on the computer that you're installing to in the future?

3. By "downloading manually", does that mean that the file will be available on the official Witcher website, so even if you don't have a GOG account you can download it?

4. On that note, will the patch data for TW3 be downloadable directly? Kinda like how it's handled with some games on GOG right now?

I'd appreciate some explanation regarding whats going down.
 
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I care about the product in retail. As it stands, day 1, codes and retail product will be up for sale, secondhand. As it stands the offline buyers are cut off. .

Retail will become less of a priority going forward. Ideally, if retail is still used, all the additional expansions should be offered through it as well, but it's an extra expense for developers. I suspect at some point retail will simply cease to exist as is. In the best case you'll be able to use some third party service which will download the data for you and send you a thumb drive in the mail.
 
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Ok, I can accept the initial retail release requiring that small file - but I have a few questions.

1. Exactly how small are we talking? KBs? MBs?

2. Will there be a way to patch the game disc itself, so that the file won't need to be present on the computer that you're installing to in the future?

3. By "downloading manually", does that mean that the file will be available on the official Witcher website, so even if you don't have a GOG account you can download it?

4. On that note, will the patch data for TW3 be downloadable directly? Kinda like how it's handled with some games on GOG right now?

I'd appreciate some explanation regarding whats going down.

About the third question:

Q: Do I need to become a GOG.com user to play the game I just bought?
A: You can install and play the game without becoming a GOG.com user.

And,

This file will either be downloaded automatically during installation process or you can choose to download it manually from a dedicated website.

So I'm guessing no GOG account for that.

About the fourth question, I'm sure the patch data will be there to download as separate files like how all the games on GOG works (Unless they created a new way for that just for this game to add value to the original copy, which I'm not sure about).

Other questions, you have to hope that they will answer :)
 
About the third question:



And,



So I'm guessing no GOG account for that.

About the fourth question, I'm sure the patch data will be there to download as separate files like how all the games on GOG works (Unless they created a new way for that just for this game to add value to the original copy, which I'm not sure about).

Other questions, you have to hope that they will answer :)

Alright. The reason that I'm asking is because the patch data can probably be hosted by fans for others to download if they don't want to have a GOG account (assuming this is the case)

As for questions 1 and 2 - that concerns the games biggest fans, the ones that are buying the physical copies on launch. It would seem rather bully if they'll always be stuck with having to keep that file around, no matter how small it ends up being. I mean, if it's actually small and not "small" by modern standards I'll be fine with it, but I can understand any ire that might arise from this decision. I'm sure having a way to patch the installer itself with the file would calm people down.
 
Q: Will I be able to install updates and the free DLCs without using the GOG.com game code?
We decided to offer software support, DLCs, and extra goodies only to gamers who confirm their purchase with the provided game code on GOG.com. This is the only way for us to differentiate between you, honest gamers who bought our game, and pirates who snatched it from the Internet.

:huh:

So do the updates, dlc's and expansions installer work with the retail version or do we have to redownload the game on GOG so that they match? Unless the updates will be downloaded automatically by the launcher like in the previous two Witcher games.
I'm not sure how this is supposed to work.

@ Patch file for installing on pre-release versions:

The patch file won't be needed after the first retail batch on release right?
 
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