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Alan Wake dev defends XBLA decision

Fans "assuming a lot" by judging spin-off.

Alan Wake fans should not be disappointed the next game in the series is an Xbox Live Arcade spin-off, developer Remedy has said.

The downloadable title, said to be named Alan Wake's Night Springs, will be "structured like a full release", Remedy community manager Peter Papadopoulos said in a message reassuring fans on the game's official forum.

Gamers already judging the game are "assuming a lot by the platform it is on", Papadopoulos argued in another post. "All I can say is wait for the official announcement before making up your mind."

Night Springs will have a "pretty damn impressive storyline that expands the originals in some interesting ways," he continued.

Alan Wake co-writer Markus Mäki has also commented on the negative reaction from some fans, quoting one members' post claiming the downloadable Night Springs wouldn't give gamers value for money. "'Don't you give you value for money...' Heh. Oh, ye of little faith," he wrote.

The original Alan Wake could have been an XBLA game too, Mäki reasoned, on the basis that without cut-scenes it would have fitted XBLA's 2GB filesize limit.

"If you're thinking about this in terms of some kind of a, I don't know, super simplified 'we still use the name but changed everything about it' version of Alan Wake, let me just say that this is not the case. That's all I'm gonna say."