I'm thinking he might just be talking out of his ass. As you said, God of War has always been narrative focused. As far as GOW 4 having a more "open-world approach", we'll have to see to what degree this manifests itself, as he's not out-and-out saying it's open world. I'm fine with the idea.
- "If you have the heart of a true winner, you can always get more pissed off than some other asshole."