The sequel to Alice Madness Returns called Alice Asylum has been canceled by EA, according to American designer McGee. The potential adventure game was in Patreon-funded limbo for a while, as fans of the cult classic helped bring to life a design document that EA eventually saw, but the publisher decided not to push the series despite calling it an “essential” part of your library.
It’s no secret that the American game designer McGee has long wanted to make a continuation of the Alice dilogy – “Alice” and “Alice: Madness Returns” – for a long time. McGee spent time working on the early stages of that legendary third game, Alice: Asylum, even publishing a 400+ page design document after it was funded by fans of the cult classic.
Now, McGee has confirmed that the dream is dead as publisher EA won’t fund the game and also refuses to sell or license the series, calling it an “essential” part of its library, according to McGee.
“After several weeks of consideration, EA has returned with an answer regarding the funding and/or licensing of Alice: Asylum,” writes American McGee on Patreon. “On the issue of financing, they finally decided to deliver the project based on an internal analysis of the intellectual property, market conditions and the details of the production proposal.
“When asked about licensing, they said that Alice is an important part of EA’s overall game catalog and they’re not ready to do that right now.
According to McGee, the Patreon page and pre-production for Alice: Asylum will go to sleep at this point, because “with these responses from EA, the project has no other way out.”
After Alice: Madness Returns was abruptly removed and streamed on Steam due to what McGee thought was an innocent mistake at the time, talk of the cult classic series returning was at an all-time high.
McGee also uses the Patreon post to highlight all of the “incredible artists and designers” who have been funded to help bring Alice: Asylum to life, but McGee adds that he’s done with the series and game production in general.
“I have no other ideas or energy left to make a new Alice game,” writes McGee. “I’m also not interested in implementing new game ideas within the context of the current game development environment.
“If anyone can convince EA to make The Vault, I want to make it clear that from now on, I do not want to be involved in this development or any development related to Alice.”
While you can always see how the story of Alice: Asylum should have been, it feels like everything is in place for a fantastic game. Although Alice: Asylum seems lost, you can check out all the upcoming PC games of this year and beyond and maybe something will fill that void.
Source : PC Gamesn
