Times are tough, the competition is tough, and EA obviously doesn’t seem willing to take any risks. After years of fighting to get back an “important catalog” license from EA, developer American McGee has given up and bowed to the famous publisher’s decision.
He fought his battle for many years. His dream ? Bring back his favorite driver’s license, Alice. A license created by American McGee but owned by EA, which had the rights to two episodes, American McGee Aliceand Alice Madness Return, much appreciated and well received, be it by the players or the press.
These action-adventure platformers picked up the famous story ofAlice in Wonderland, but adds a layer of horror and dark fantasy. The two works literally made us swim insane, pretty close to a Tim Burton film with a little more gore.
Alice in wallet land
Because of this small success, at least critically, American McGee wanted to sign on again for a third work. For years and after opening a Patreon, the man surrounds himself with a team and builds a project: Alice Asylum. The result is a PDF file with more than 400 pages (to consult online or through the chain youtube from the developer) that contains everything needed to sell the project to EA. But after studying the case, the publisher put down a definitive bolt.
In a long post, American McGee explains that afterwards “After weeks of deliberation and study, EA has finally reached its verdict” about the arrival of a new game and/or the sale of Alice’s intellectual property. The developer claims that after internal IP analysis and market research, “The company finally decided not to proceed with the project”.
The American McGee then tried to regain the IP to make a game on his side, but again EA swept all hopes. Though it refuses to do anything with the license, the publisher says it is considering the Alice franchise “as an important part of its catalog of games” and he wasn’t “not ready to sell or license it any time soon”. Apparently, American McGee’s projects will be permanently scrapped and the license suspended until further notice.
A new failure, the last of a (too) long list
This failure was a heavy blow to the developer, who made a radical decision. American McGee ends his post by thanking all the fans who have followed and helped him over the years, as well as those who have participated in Patreon. This is too much for the developer. This ultimate failure marked the end of his career. He claims to have “reached an endpoint with ‘Alice’ and game production in general”. He claims to have reached the end of his ideas and has no energy to continue. Now the American McGee wants to focus on his family and his family business. He brings the point home by saying that even if EA ended up wanting to make a new Alice game, he didn’t even want to be a part of it anymore. “My involvement in the ‘Alice’ franchise is over too”. It is finished.
The reactions on social networks are very numerous, especially after American McGee’s statement, and fans are saddened by the news. It’s a big disappointment as we’re obviously nowhere near seeing Alice again.
An almost extinct franchise
It’s hard to imagine the future of the Alice franchise that’s almost gone now. EA doesn’t seem motivated to develop a new game and doesn’t want to part with its license. So she’s frozen. At times, a series was also discussed. The show was to be written by David Hayter (X-Men, X Men 2), but we have no more news.
If you want to discover the license now, you know thatReturn of the Alice Madness is available on PC, specifically via steam and the game is also the subject of a huge promotion at the moment. It’s the easiest way to get your hands on it right now, unless you’re bringing out your trusty old PS3 and Xbox 360.
