As stated on http://www.gog.com/en/page/tw2v3, TW2 soundtrack in the Digital Premium Edition will be encoded in MP3 format. I cannot comment on the quality as I haven't heard the soundtrack myself but I'm sure CDPRED will deliver a high bitrate and we won't compress the original files furthermore, that's for sure TW2 has a built in launcher that will handles updating automatically. I'm not sure if the updates will be also separately downloadable from GOG.com page, it depends on CDPRED really - I can't really check it now as I'm writing from home :)

To answer the questions asked about patching:

GOG provides you guys with the game DRM-free. Like pretty much all of our games, we provide you guys with the most recent patched version available at release. The Witcher 2 is an unusual case, of course, since it's a new release instead of an old one. GOG won't be hosting patches because we're not the publisher. You'll need your CD Key from GOG to be able to register your game and install any future DLC or patches.

There remains no DRM on the game, no install limits, and nothing prohibiting you from backing your GOG title up onto DVDs or whatever form of media amuses you most. Further, there is no activation limit for how many times the patch can be downloaded off a particular serial code from GOG.com.

I don't see how, even in the most general sense, that can be considered DRM, but you're of course free to point out the error of my ways in great detail by hitting that "reply to" button below.

These are all very good questions and ones whose answer I'm not 100% sure of. I'm on vacation at the moment, but I'll ask CDP Red about 'em when I get back on Wednesday.

Well, I asked on Wednesday. Got answers today and one of them was not to my liking, so I will go and see if I can convince the devs at CDP to see things my way. No idea if they will (they have better things to do than keep the head of PR & marketing at a company that's not even theirs happy), but I'll give it the old college try.

Providing you guys with a substantive answer is near the top of my to-do list.

"Tell it to me straight, doc"?

I'd like to think of myself as more than just a "PR Guy".

That one I know: exclusive preorder goodies for other retailers are, well, exclusive to them. If we gave them to you, they wouldn't be exclusive, would they?

Still waiting on the answer to my sticking point. I am bending my powers of persuasion to the task!

Technically? "Head of PR and Marketing." :P

I have answers to all of these fresh from CDP RED, now, finally, and have triumphed in my efforts to persuade the Powers That Be to change their minds!

Please bear in mind that all of my answers only necessarily apply to GOG.com's version. I have exactly 0 idea what happens when you add SecureROM in the mix.

1. The serial key is associated with an account on thewitcher.com. However, the serial key is entered once and checked only when you connect to the servers to patch or otherwise download new DLC. If you don't connect to the server, it won't check for the serial code. If the servers have been destroyed by an attack of pudding, you will experience no side effects except, perhaps, the inability to patch the game at that precise instant. And maybe a fear of pudding.

2. The DLC is not associated with any account. It's associated with a promotional code and a serial number, but is only checked the once upon download and is not checked again.

3. There is no association with hardware, or software, or desktop wallpaper or any of that. You're entering a serial code when you connect from the launcher to the servers for a patch or for DLC is to make sure that we're not hosting patches on our high-speed CDN for pirates to download at our expense.

4. Currently, there are no such plans.

5. There are not currently any plans to release the patches as a standalone. BUT! We will, once the game has matured some and is not being updated frequently, make a new master build on GOG.com which will, of course, require no serial key or activation to install or play. How long will that be? I don't know.

There's been some talk in this thread about whether using the launcher to deliver patches is a form of DRM (well, maybe more than just "some"). Let's talk about what DRM is. It's defined my Merriam-Websiter as :"Any technology used to limit the use of software, music, movies, or other digital data." GOG.com's version doesn't limit your use in any way. Want to install your game on a dozen computers? Feel free. Have the burning urge to make six backup copies of the game and squirrel them around your house on removable media? Go right ahead. Want to install the patch on every computer in your school's computer lab? We aren't stopping you.

My understanding of things is that the files that are going to be used by the launcher to patch the game aren't executables. CD Projekt aren't offering them separate from the launcher because the average Joe wouldn't know what to do with them. CD Projekt requires a serial code in order to download the patch because, frankly, hosting patching files isn't cheap and they don't want the pirates to bogart all our bandwith. And yeah, I imagine that they want to make the pirates work a little harder for the patches than they may have otherwise. Once you've procured the files, though, they're yours to use as you'd like, just like the rest of the game.

It seems to me that the issue with patching is not an issue with DRM; rather, it's an issue with content delivery. GOG.com provides the game without DRM to everyone. Once we've given you that, it's out of our hands how the rest of the games' content is delivered.

Of course you're welcome to disagree with me on my views of whether this is DRM of some sort or not. You're even welcome to decide that the way that CD Projekt patches games is unpleasant to you and you'd rather not buy the game from us. GOG.com remains convinced that our offer for The Witcher 2 is the best one on the Internet, and we stand by our "100% DRM-Free" promise for this--and every other one--of the games that we sell.

The files downloaded by the launcher aren't an executable. So I'm not sure how you'd do it. Also, they're handled by the launcher entirely and processed by programmatic magic into updates on the game.

That said, if you're brainy enough to figure out how to do it, yeah, there's no DRM restrictions preventing you from installing the files on another copy of the game.

I have no idea if that will work. Dang. I guess I'll have to ask them on Monday if that's possible.

What's that? :P

Let's leave the specifics of the contents of this sausage uninspected. ;)

If Russian is released on GOG's version, it won't be at launch, and it will be a DLC added after the fact. That said, they haven't made it clear to me if they're planning on making a Russian laguage pack DLC available or not.

Yes. The patch doesn't check, once you've downloaded it through the launcher, back on the servers, whether it's on the same computer it was before, or any other form of controlling how you want to use it.
My copy of the OED is sadly in the States. It's also too old to have "DRM" defined, I'm pretty sure.
The online serial check for patching verifies if the game is a legit copy before you download the files from us. If you procure the patch from some other method (which, yeah, I'm sure will show up on the net about two minutes after we push our first patch live), there's no checks anywhere in the files to control how they're used. As I understand it, that's content delivery, not DRM.

Though I know some folks (like you, likely) won't agree with me on that.

While it will inevitably happen then, too, I'm told that it is very likely we'll get a build well before that which is also fully patched on GOG.com.

It kind of does require an internet connection. You have to download the game somehow, after all. After then, though? It won't require a connection, no.