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I am busy downloading Witcher 3 now, and will probably be done in about a day and a half's time (slow connection here...).

I would just like to know: Will I still need to download the updates after I have downloaded the game, or does the initial download include the updates?

Steam shows the total download size is about 30.5 GB for me. Read on forums that download size was about 22.9 GB when the game came out. So that most probably means that patches, etc. are included in the current download. If anyone can confirm this, I would be grateful.

I'm asking because I had a bad experience with The Elder scrolls online, where the updates that I still needed to download were about half the size of the initial download (which was about 40 - 50 gigs IIRC).

UPDATE:

Finished downloading the game. It includes the latest patch, i.e. I did not have to download any additional patches to be able to play the game.

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Most games do a complete download of all current patches on Steam.

However... MMOs tend to download the launcher and the launch version of the game. Then, the launcher will update the game on its own.

It's up to the game's publisher to keep the Steam copies of the game up to date and the MMO companies tend not to do that.

The largest offender I've seen of this is Planetside 2. You essentially ended up downloading the game again through the downloader. Basically, the game's internals were completely rewritten after launch, but the Steam version was never updated with this version.

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  • I see. It's pretty strange that MMOs do it that way, because to play them, you HAVE to have the latest version, while with single player games it's more optional to have the latest patch
    – Konrad
    Commented Dec 27, 2015 at 12:33
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    @KonradKapp It's because the publishers and/or developers don't keep the copies on Steam up to date. I assume this is because they ship their own updaters.
    – Powerlord
    Commented Dec 27, 2015 at 18:37
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    @KonradKapp: the game companies probably look at it more like: with MMOs, we've already gone to the trouble of creating a server infrastructure, and users HAVE to have an internet connection, so we'll manage keeping version up to date and not have to deal with Steam and Gog and whatever other companies. With single player, developer may opt to let Steam keep the game up to date so they don't have to deal with programming the game to connect to some update server and update itself.
    – Kip
    Commented Dec 30, 2015 at 21:52
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With my experience I always have to update games after downloading. So I assume the same for you.

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    Just found this: steamcommunity.com/app/292030/discussions/0/481115363871679535
    – Konrad
    Commented Dec 26, 2015 at 22:07
  • if you are interested
    – Konrad
    Commented Dec 26, 2015 at 22:08
  • When I downloaded TESO, it was partially patched, but there were still a few big ones that I had to download. So it seems that steam keeps the initial downloads up to date to a certain extent, with regards to patches
    – Konrad
    Commented Dec 26, 2015 at 22:09

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