Alice: Asylum project closed, American McGee retired – all because of Electronic Arts
Game designer American McGee addressed fans with a farewell letter. He quits game development and closes the Alice: Asylum project. And Electronic Arts are to blame for this, who do not want to finance a new game or license it to another company.
Perhaps this story should have found its way into the pages of Jason Schreier’s book Press Reset: Ruin and Recovery in the Video Game Industry, because American McGee just burned out trying to revive the fan-favorite series for many years.
The designer recently produced a huge PDF book Alice: Asylum Design Bible, a kind of design/art document with which, as well as a detailed production plan from Virtuos Games, he went to Electronic Arts.
Unfortunately, EA bosses considered the offer and said the market wasn’t ready for a game like Alice: Asylum right now. Knowing Electronic Arts, this should be read as “We don’t understand how to stuff loot boxes in here and make money off a game for ten years.”
Regarding licensing, EA responded, “‘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.” Even to the person who actually created this IP. Typical EA behavior in the spirit of a dog in the manger.
After this rejection, American McGee gave up and decided to leave the industry. Patreon and other funding sources for Alice: Asylum will be closed.
“I have no control over the Alice IP. That control 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,” American McGee wrote.
Well EA, well done, you killed another game series.