So I haven't seen any of the NPDs for Alan Wake or Red Dead, but I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume that latter is crushing the former in sales. There's the argument that Red Dead was more heavily marketed and that Rockstar has a much weightier pedigree than Remedy, and that may account for 10 percent or so of the difference, but there's something larger at play that we need to address.
It's about freedom.
It's one of the first things you learn as a DM in a table-top RPG: don't railroad your players. Gamers don't like being pushed along a narrow canyon; that's a gameplay element we tolerated once only because there was no alternative, and in fact the alternative seemed impossible. At the very least, the modern gamer demands some sort of side diversion or alternate path, or a sixty dollar game doesn't work as a realistic value proposition. Witness Final Fantasy XIII. Sure, that game sold a mess of copies, because it's a game that has the words "Final Fantasy" in the title followed immediately by a (as video game sequels go) ludicrously high number. But as immediately as it was released, and even in the pre-release press, there was a ton of criticism about it's linearity. Sure, stalwarts held that 30-50 hours into the game it opened up, but that's a very difficult way to snare casual gamers or gamers who aren't already interested in your franchise. Even "hardcore" gamers or those of us that have always had a fairly vested interest in that series balked at the idea of a JRPG that runs you along a straight path between lenghty cutscenes.
I love the idea of Alan Wake. I love a company, especially Remedy, attempting to sell a video game on atmosphere. And who knows, maybe it's a compelling experience. But I'll never find out, because I'm not going to burn 60 dollars on a game that pulls me down a narrow, one-way path. A decade into the 21st century, I don't feel this is an unreasonable position.
I will mount my horse, ride across the frontier, and occasionally wax a little bit mournful that it's not just a tad bit darker in New Austin.
-a
