The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt developer CD Projekt Red has responded to fans who are upset that the Xbox One Collector's Edition of the game is getting exclusive physical items.

All Collector's Editions of the game include an artbook, a figure of the game's hero Geralt fighting a Griffin, stickers, game map, soundtrack, steelbook, medallion, and a collector's box. A cloth map and two decks of Gwent cards, which you can play like The Witcher 3's in-game competitive card game, are exclusive specifically to the the Xbox One Collector's Edition.

"Why are we doing this? We need the support of partners to make our game visible worldwide," CD Projekt co-founder Marcin Iwiński said in a statement to Eurogamer. "This should hopefully translate to better sales, which will in consequence allow us to do what we have been doing for the last 10 years, i.e. reinvest this money to make more great RPGs, while still sticking to our values."

Iwiński said that CD Projekt Red will keep its promise not to have any platform or retailer-exclusive DLC, and that the company always tries to "bend over backwards" to give customers the best, DRM-free editions of its games regardless of platform.

"If you still consider that adding two decks of Gwent cards and a map of the in-game world to the Xbox One CE equals us betraying our values and not fulfilling our promises, well, it does make us sad, but the final call is always yours to make," he said. "Still, I do hope that what we offer is unique and we can ask you to give us the benefit of the doubt. We have more great things to announce for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt in the coming months and I promise you won't be disappointed (yes, yes, there are no more exclusives coming)."

The Witcher 3 launches on February 24 for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC. For more on the game, check out this six minute gameplay video from Gamescom and our latest preview.

Would you rather have console-exclusive physical items or DLC? Let us know in the comments below?