An update on American McGee’s Alice: Asylum patreon project has revealed that EA won’t be taking on a sequel to the 2000 and 2011 Alice series, which creator McGee has been trying to get made for something like (opens in new tab) six years now (opens in new tab). McGee says EA is neither interested in funding the project itself nor licensing the Alice IP to McGee.
“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 catalog, and selling or licensing it isn’t something they’re prepared to do right now,” said McGee in a post titled “End of the Adventure (opens in new tab)” on the Alice: Asylum Patreon project.
The Alice: Asylum project has been an effort by McGee to put together a detailed pitch document with art and concepts in order to get EA to fund a sequel or allow it to be made via licensing the world. After creating world documents and outlines over the course of the past year, all of which you can read online (opens in new tab), McGee finally started properly pitching the project in February with a really weird video (opens in new tab).
It’s honestly kind of weird that EA would say it considers Alice an “important part of EA’s overall game catalog” seeing as the last Alice game to come out was in 2011. You know, 12 years ago. Enough time in even slow-paced development land for two or three sequels to have been developed and released. I know I treat the most important ideas I’ve had in the same way: Leave them on a shelf and pay no attention to them at all.
As for McGee, well, he says that’s the end of things for his Alice: Asylum project, and for his involvement with not just the Alice world but game production generally.
“For my part, I have also reached an endpoint with “Alice” and with game production in general. I have no other ideas or energy left to apply toward getting a new Alice game made. Nor do I have any interest in pursuing new game ideas within the context of the current environment for game development,” he said.
“If someone does manage to convince EA to make “Asylum,” I would like to make clear that, from this point forward, I have no desire to be involved with that or any other Alice-related development,” said McGee.
So that’s it for a weird, multi-year saga in the wild world of game development. Bid farewell to the Alice IP, I suppose. Or just make your own darkly-inflected Alice in Wonderland themed game. It’s public domain. You can just… do it. Nobody can stop you.