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American McGee’s Alice series is reportedly cancelling its latest planned sequel due to EA’s refusal to fund the project. The well-known video game publishers have stated that “selling or licensing it isn’t something they’re prepared to do right now,” even after acknowledging that it remains an important part of EA’s overall game catalog.
For those unfamiliar, the story of American McGee’s Alice is inspired by Lewis Carroll’s novels featuring the similarly named protagonist. However, the former is a more twisted and nightmarish version that contains themes of oppression, trauma, and violence.
The first installment of the series was initially released in 2000 for Windows and Mac OS platforms, but was then launched digitally for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2011. Upon being made available to the public, the game immediately received critical acclaim for its imaginative artwork and brilliant environmental design.
A follow-up entry called Alice: Madness Returns was subsequently released in 2011 as well, which was poorly received by both fans and critics alike. Unfortunately, the sequel’s poor reception led to EA abandoning the entire series for other, more lucrative ventures. That is, until American McGee himself decided to revive the project by creating an Alice: Asylum Design Bible that contained “a complete vision for a third chapter in Alice’s video game adventure.”
After the Design Bible’s completion, McGee apparently continued talks with EA regarding their efforts to get a new game made. Sadly, his efforts failed to bear fruit and, after having “exhausted every option” to get a new installment created, the series’ creative director decided to scrap the product entirely.
Based on the Alice: Asylum team’s most recent statements, there is apparently no “other way forward with the project.” For this reason, they’ve decided to “hibernate” the game’s Patreon page, although the content will remain in place. American McGee has also stated that he has “reached an endpoint with Alice and with game production in general.”
This is obviously terrible news for fans of the twisted Alice video game series as many had been hoping that EA would give Mysterious Studios the green light on the project. Some are still wishing for the game’s eventual revival, but based on the dejected nature of the development team’s recent blog post, it doesn’t seem like the American McGee Alice sequel is happening any time soon.
