This has always been Remedy's MO though. There definitely could be influence from Microsoft but I wouldn't be too surprised if this was how the game was intended to be to begin with. Max Payne used real photos for the environments and some of the actors. The story was told through comic book strips that depicted real actors as well. Alan Wake used real actors in some of the cutscenes and had "episodes" that were followed by intros and outros (complete with music). American Nightmare played out like an episode of the Twilight Zone (complete with ominous narrator) and used real actors as well. Remedy always seems to try to blend cinema with games.
True, they have been on this path for quite a while. But it is Microsoft who pushed them further on this path. If I recall corectly from a recent article about Alan Wake 2 QB came from a concept of AW2 where part of the story was suposed to be told in a tv-show. Microsoft jumped on the idea and asked them to go 'all the way' with the show.
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/alan-wake-2-pitched-with-live-action-component-bec/1100-6435415/
I always found it interesting how Remedy tried to blend media, but QB to me is proof it doesn't work and is the wrong path in trying to push games forward as a storytelling medium. The TV-show is in fact only cutscènes filmed in live action (it is not self-contained, my wife would not be able to follow the show if she would not watch me play too, so to me it isn't even a tv-show). It looks cheap and the fact real actors play it, makes the bad videogame dialogue only stand out more. Videogames are graphically so advanced now, you don't need live action at all anymore.
And don't start me on the overlong emails and stuff that totally breaks op the pace. It's old fashioned videogame story telling. I can stand a short note here and there, but pages upon pages of mails? No, no, no.
There are so many games now that do a lot more interesting stuff storytellingwise. The Last of Us with it's small optional dialogue moments builds it's world way better then those overlong emails (and the game in itself is way better written too). Telltale Games have the same 'tv-show'-like structure and also branch there storylines without actually pushing it all in a very different direction. But at least you care for the characters, which makes the choices mean something, regardless if the consequense isn't all that different from the other choice. Hell, a few weeks from the release of QB we got Stories: The Path of Destinies, a little indiegem that does really interesting and new things with choices and storytelling in games.
Storywise QB is a lineair game with only the illusion of choices, that only have effect on characters you don't care about, and which is partially told via bad live action cut scènes and way to much reading.