Yesterday, the game was released on Steam.
It is a phased release, with Germany, France and I think Britain going first. Other countries will follow. They do it, I assume, to not overwhelm their servers.
Yesterday also some people reported the old issue with server connectivity again, probably linked to the Steam release. People were unable to download updates, and play. Or the download took 20 min - 3 hours. Or ended in the need to reinstall the complete game (downloading it first, taking all day).
I have not been affected by this, however. I was affected from summer last year until spring this year - for three quarters of a year.
If people are affected by it, try to run the new launcher as administrator. It is said to solve issues for many people.
Steam forums are already full with comments from people demanding to be given all content and all stuff for FREE.
As much as I question the latest sales policies they have implemented, I am at war with this attitude to demand stuff for free as well. Both are extremes.
I hope the technical issues some people got plagued by, will pass and will not spread again. But until today, I say again: technically all works well for me currently.