Announcing Alan Wake as a open-world game “was a mistake”

[Reasonable]

fighter said:
hello ps3 fans ! damn you're all over the place !



anyway, back on topic, you make it sound like a loss when it should be an enhancement:

Remedy: "We were like, "This isn't working. We need to go more linear, control the pacing, and tap into those emotions to get the player's pulse racing. We needed to be able to control the soundscape, we needed to control the environment, the weather, the music, and stuff like that." The game is built on open world technology and, in hind sight, it has given us a lot of opportunities because at times we make the path very wide and very long for the player. The player can definitely choose how they get from A to B, they can choose to go by foot or go by car. There's a lot of exploration content in there. You can see out into the environment. The visibility, you can see six to eight kilometers during the day time. (Note: That's 4 to 5 miles, America!)"

If it makes you feel better I think their decision is for the better - and that the loss of full open world is no loss at all for this type of game but actually an improvement.