It's kind of telling that Marcin had to resort to reminding us that they've been good in the past, and how this is for the good of all, in order to try and assuage the crowd. It sounds like that they know they aren't quite right on this, and can't come up with any concrete arguments as to why this deal is in keeping with their values. I would've actually preferred it If CDPR had just come out and said Microsoft has given us funds to include these extra physical bonuses for the X1 CE, instead of the spiel we got. Be upfront and honest. I would've still disagreed with them accepting the offer, but at least I would have appreciated and respected their honesty. I understand CDPR has the responsibility, as a business, to earn as much money as they can, but they cannot claim this is perfectly in keeping with their stance on treating every platform equally.
And it seems like they vastly underestimated how upset the core fan-base would be. Most of us first played the Witcher games on the PC, and though a portion may be moving onto consoles, I would venture to guess that a vast majority will be sticking with the platform we started on. So to make something like a full deck card-game and a superior quality map, which would definitely hold more value and interest to those said core-fans, exclusive to a console platform, is hurtful. We also cannot help wonder whether this is just a one-time thing or whether these types of deals will become more prevalent in the future. After all, if they see nothing wrong with this, what's to stop them including other business practices in the list of what's ok?
Finally, I must mention that I feel this reaction was tempered by concerns regarding CDPR's approach to game design. Even with TW2, we saw elements of 'consolification' creep into it, and there have been many conversations about how much of it will be present in the PC version of TW3. I understand that as CDPR expand their horizons, they have to make certain decisions and sacrifices, but from what we've seen from TW3 so far, and announcements like this one, you cannot blame us for being anxious and voicing our worries and concerns.
