Silent_Buddha
Legend
Well, the story they were trying to tell was also pretty linear, so the open would have been wasted, without "side-activities", which then can detract from the main narrative thread. The industry is also flooded with open world games which have become an opportunity to pad out titles with superficial resource collecting and copy and pasted enemy encounters. To have an open world full of unique and interesting encounters would require a lot more developer resources, and as an independent studio Remedy can't really compete with the large AAA developers.
Yup too many open world games that don't do anything with the open world other than add zillions of unrelated busy body side quests and collectathons (UBIsoft formula) and not enough that actually have a meaningful open world (like Elden Ring).
Might be why Elden Ring has been the only open world game I've ever finished, I think.
Regards,
SB