American McGee steps away from development as EA turns down Alice: Asylum

Shame, I was following up on Mcgee for years.
EA has the funds, it's pocket change for them.
If they want to keep the IP because it's important to them, then it's stupid turning down a new game.

Therfore bihoveth hire a ful long spoon
That shal ete with a feend,’ thus herde I seye.

‘He who sups with the Devil should have a long spoon’ American McGee should know this from his previous experiences with EA.

alice was never so popular that this genius asked 50 million for the game.

So if Alice is such an important part of EA's catalogue, when why are they dragging their heels in making a new one?

With only two games, it doesn't sound too important to them. Let American McGee have it back so he can find another publisher that WILL make his games.

it's a bummer, but the 2 older games still exist to play, so that's cool.

I hate to be against the current, but I feel the blame is on McGee. If you are trying to convince a company of giving you money to fun your project (and we are talking 50 millions he asked) what is commonly called a pitch, you don't waste backers money on a design bible. That's just drawings that nobody knows how well they would transport to a videogame. You hire people to make a convincing prototype. You hire people to bring data to make a sales pitch. You do the pitch to another companies, and try to make a deal with EA

That's my opinion, anyway.. EA wasn't supposed to give money to anyone.

Maybe for the best, if he even really cared at all. He hasn't even made anything close to a game in over 10 years, and it always comes back to moaning about the past instead of trying something new.

In recent years his tone has shifted from "Wanting to make games" to "Wanting to make money." He did a whole "game design" interview with Killmonday where he couldn't get two sentences out without preaching a decidedly pro-Chinese industry rhetoric, crowing about how great China was and how people should buy real estate and invest in Chinese factories instead.

He was also heavily pushing his (Chinese-manufactured) Alice-adjacent merch, at least, when he wasn't whining about how he couldn't get the rights to do whatever he wanted with the Alice IP, or convince EA to fund a vaporware sequel. His "design bible" sounded more like a loose collection of fanwank concepts and ideas, without any of the forethought or planning necessary to translate it into an actual game.

For years he's been doing more name-dropping than actual work, probably to secure risk-free nonrefundable income through channels like Patreon and milk the fans while he still can. I guess word was going to get out one way or another that EA had finally nailed the coffin, so the jig was definitely up. I'm not surprised he shut it all down.

This breaks my heart to hear. I have been following this project for many years now (not constantly, but checking in every once in a while), and I loved what the structure of the game had become. The entire structure of the game was already planned out, the narrative and script were already written, all the the art for all enemies, encounters, weapons, levels, costumes, were all made. There was so much creativity and meaning in all the designs, especially the narrative and how it portrayed and handled trauma. Which hits even harder when you know the tragic upbringing and backstory of American McGee himself, and you know how much of himself and his own trauma and dealing with trauma he has put into the narrative, and how personal it is for him, yet still formed in a way where anyone who has struggled with trauma or mental health issues can deeply relate. It truly hurts to see this. :(

Of course, even with the most brilliant game design being done, none of it guarantees that the actual game will be well made, if they don't have a competent and talented studio working on the actual gameplay and realising the game design to a real product. So, if it was to be made on a low budget and by a poor studio, it might just be so much wasted potential in the end. But he had found atalanted studio willing to work on the game, and keep the creative vision for it. So I am just really saddened by EA shutting this down like that. In a way though it was always a bit of a "maybe" if we will ever see the game, so while it hurts, at least there won't be this false hope anymore. Still I will always wonder what could have been, like with Kojima's P.T. and Silent Hills. Though at least Kojima got a happy outcome in the end, while we will never get to play what could have been American McGee's magnum opus.

What's up with McGee and getting screwed over? Abandoned by his parents as a kid, betrayed at id, and now this shit? I understand him taking a step back now. Madness Returns was a masterpiece, bummed we won't get to see the sequel.

Well if he really wanted to, I'm sure he could simply make a new IP or a spiritual successor and shift development to an indie studio, but, that's just my opinion. I know EA has rights, but they do not own Alice in Wonderland, they own Alice Madness. If they refused and I really wanted to make the game, I'd just make something they do not already own, like a game about the Wizard of Oz that EA definitely doesn't own. 👀

How long does EA have the rights to the IP?