American McGee says they were "emotionally quite destroyed" by EA canceling Alice Asylum, and now they can't touch the IP "for the rest of [their] life

(Image credit: EA)

American McGee, the lead creator behind EA's Alice game series, has asked fans to "move on" after a proposal for a sequel was turned down by the publisher earlier this year.

In a YouTube video titled "Asylum: Final Word," McGee reveals that he felt "emotionally quite destroyed" after EA turned down the team's proposal for a third Alice game, which would've been Alice Asylum.

In April 2023, McGee posted to Patreon, explaining that after presenting the team at EA with a design bible full of story bits, artwork, concepts, and more, the publisher declined the proposal - meaning we wouldn't be seeing a third Alice game.

"[EA] have ultimately decided to pass on the project based on an internal analysis of the IP, market conditions, and details of the production proposal," the Patreon post read. "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."

In McGee's new video, the developer added: "I was emotionally quite destroyed by the fact that our proposal was rejected. Not only because we had invested so much into it as a community, and as creators, but also because I felt quite strongly that it presented a vision for something that was not only achievable but would have been quite beautiful if we had been allowed to pursue it."

Understandably, a lot of Alice fans were disappointed by the Asylum news, which resulted in several people giving the developer suggestions as to how to get a new project off the ground - including developing a spiritual sequel or that McGee create a new game based on Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland story as it's in the public domain.

Unfortunately, McGee says "the Alice rights are kind of complicated but it all boils down to I, American McGee, have no control over ownership in or ability to do things similar to or derivative of Alice and Wonderland or anything like it for the rest of my life."

"At the end of it all," McGee continues in the video, "the owners of the IP, Electronic Arts, made clear that they have no desire to see the Alice franchise continued by me or anyone else." The developer urges fans to "please just move on" and send any future questions, thoughts, or complaints to EA instead, as it's completely out of their control now.

As sad as this is, the good news is that Alice isn't completely over as American McGee's Alice is getting a surprise TV adaptation.

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After studying Film Studies and Creative Writing at university, I was lucky enough to land a job as an intern at Player Two PR where I helped to release a number of indie titles. I then got even luckier when I became a Trainee News Writer at GamesRadar+ before being promoted to a fully-fledged News Writer after a year and a half of training. My expertise lies in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, cozy indies, and The Last of Us, but especially in the Kingdom Hearts series. I'm also known to write about the odd Korean drama for the Entertainment team every now and then.