Turns out we'd been thinking of "episodic" gaming the wrong way. Episodic pioneers like Telltale long-since realized that consumers won't stick around episode to episode unless they buy the season upfront; so, episodic gaming isn't so much about a new business model as it is about a new (well, for gaming at least) method of storytelling. And that's where Alan Wake comes in.

When Finnish game developer Remedy Entertainment announced it was turning in wronged NYPD cop Max Payne's badge and gun, only to pick up mystery writer Alan Wake's uh, pen ... and hoodie ... it was clear something was different. Over the game's prolonged five-year development cycle, Alan Wake morphed from an open-world, sandbox-style game set in the Pacific Northwest's fictional town of Bright Falls to a carefully scripted, episodic creation that had more in common with Twin Peaks than Grand Theft Auto.