Quote Originally Posted by Freyar View Post
While Blizzard titles may patch on the old launcher, they are moving to a new one that will require you to log in first.
As I use the new Battle.Net launcher, I can comment on this.
Login? yes. Have an active subscription? no.
I have barely touched WoW since before the timeless isle; what blizz games I have poked is mostly hearthstone (and then d3 a couple weeks ago), but I've been able to keep my WoW up to date, despite the lack of an active subscription to it.

For the Sony argument, yes, they all require login. Most of them, if not all, are also F2P now too.

Above all, OP isn't saying they don't want to log in, they're saying they want to patch without an active subscription, so they can be ready to go when they drop their money into SE's hands.