The Decade-Long Effort To Make Alice: Asylum Has Reached An End

gamespot.com:

American McGee said Alice IP holder Electronic Arts has refused to fund the development or consider licensing options.

By Jenny Zheng on

The decade-long push to get Alice: Asylum--a theoretical third game in the Alice series--has ended, announced developer American McGee.

After the completion of an Alice: Asylum design bible--a huge document containing concept art, core game design concepts, and narrative goals--McGee said he resumed talks with Electronic Arts, the company that owns Alice's IP, to see if EA would be either be willing to fund Alice: Asylum or to license the IP out.

Alice: Asylum has reached The End After several weeks of review, EA has come back with a response regarding funding and/or licensing for «Alice: Asylum» — Alice had a good run but the dream is over. https://t.co/hyprIq9MpE#gamedev #aliceasylum pic.twitter.com/sIE3bKbaVY

EA refused to do either. McGee said EA passed on funding due to «internal analysis of the IP, market conditions, and details of the production proposal,» and did not want to license the IP because, "'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."

McGee spearheaded both of the previous Alice games, American McGee's Alice and Alice Madness Returns. He has tried to get the third Alice game off the ground for years, opening up a Patreon to help support the creation of a production and design plan--with acknowledgement that it depends entirely on EA whether or not a third Alice game is greenlit.

Now with EA's decision, McGee said the team has «exhausted» every option to realize a third Alice game, and that «there is no other way forward with the project.»

He will close the Alice: Asylum Patreon page