In a post on his Patreon, game designer American McGee announced to fans that the third American McGee’s Alice game had been rejected by EA.
Electronic Arts (EA) owns the intellectual property rights to American McGee’s Alice. Despite McGee’s name being analogous to the franchise, after EA rejected his latest proposal it was he that had to leave the franchise behind.
End of the Adventure
Dear Insane Children,
Over the past few years, your support has made possible a constant stream of creative output by a team of artists, writers, designers, modelers, and producers. That output resulted in the “Alice: Asylum” Design Bible – a 414pg PDF containing the complete vision for a 3rd Chapter in Alice’s video game adventures.
Shortly after the completion of the Design Bible, I resumed talks with Electronic Arts regarding our efforts to get a new game made. 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.
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 catalog, 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. As such, we will be hibernating this Patreon page and related pre-production activities. The content will remain in place but we’ll no longer present options for funding “Alice: Asylum” efforts via this (or any other) platform.
“Alice: Asylum” is at an end.
As this announcement is certain to draw significant attention, I would like to focus some visibility on the amazing artists and designers who were funded through Patreon during this project:
Alex Crowley – Project Manager & Designer
https://www.instagram.com/alexceeart/
Omri Koresh – Illustrator & Art Director
https://www.instagram.com/omrikoreshart/
Norm Felchle – Illustrator
https://www.instagram.com/ndfelchle/
Joey Zeng – Illustrator
https://www.artstation.com/joey_1999
https://www.instagram.com/joeyzeng_1999
Adam Narozanski – Illustrator
https://www.instagram.com/vitaj_art/
Gareth Keenan – Illustrator
https://www.instagram.com/garethkeenanart/
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.
This brings us full circle to the statement I made years ago which initiated EA reaching out to me to ask if I wanted to explore making a new Alice game…
I have no control over the Alice IP and no ability to make a new game happen. That control and ability rest entirely with EA.
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.
My involvement with “Alice” is also at an end.
Going forward, I will focus on my family and our family business at Mysterious.
Lastly, I want to extend a bittersweet Thank You to our Insane Children (Patreon supporters). I know this is not the outcome we hoped for. 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.
-American McGee
April 8th, 2023
Queensland, Australia
Given EA’s reluctance to approve McGee’s game proposal, it’s unclear what the future holds for the franchise. Although last we heard there was a TV series in the works, it seems unlikely that American McGee will have any hand in it.
