Developer American McGee has revealed the sad news that he won't be creating the third game in his cult Alice series (thanks, Eurogamer).
McGee revealed plans to make Alice: Asylum back in August 2021, following on from 2000's American McGee's Alice and 2011's Alice: Madness Returns, both of which have built up a small but passionate fanbase. However, McGee has now explained that the project has effectively been killed thanks to IP holder EA passing on the venture.
"Shortly after the completion of the Design Bible, I resumed talks with Electronic Arts regarding our efforts to get a new game made," McGee says on his Patreon account. "They were presented with the Design Bible and a Production Plan (produced in collaboration with Virtuos Games) outlining the schedule, budget, team, and design for the new game's production."
He adds:
"After several weeks of review, EA has come back with a response regarding funding and/or licensing for Alice: Asylum. On the question of funding, they have ultimately decided to pass on the project based on an internal analysis of the IP, market conditions, and details of the production proposal. On the question of licensing, they replied that Alice is an important part of EA’s overall game catalogue, and selling or licensing it isn’t something they’re prepared to do right now. At this point, we have exhausted every option for getting a new Alice game made. With those answers from EA, there is no other way forward with the project."
McGee concludes by thanking the artists who have contributed to the project thus far (all paid by McGee's own Patreon supporters) and that he sadly has "no other ideas or energy left to apply towards getting a nice Alice game made" – nor does he have any control over the Alice IP.
"I know this is not the outcome we hoped for," he says. "And I feel a mix of emotions that leaves me sick at the idea of all the money, hope, ideas, and love you've poured into this effort over the years. We knew going into this adventure that failure was a possibility. But we wanted to believe impossible things - and we had fun doing that up to the moment when reality forced itself into our Wonderland. It's often said that when one door closes, another opens. Trite but true. And I hope that for all of you, this closure will bring life to other adventures and dreams."