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American McGee's Alice: Asylum - Third Installment in the Twisted Retelling of Alice in Wonderland - Has Been Cancelled

SnapShot

SnapShot

Member
After years of planning and preproduction it seems Alice Asylum has reached the end of the road



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.
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For those curious about American McGee's Alice and Alice: Madness Returns

 
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M1chl

M1chl

Currently Gif and Meme Champion
Meh, the Alice in Wonderland or whatever the name was, was so aggressively boring long slog, that I don't really care for any cancellation.
 
Bragr

Bragr

Banned
ssringo said:
I really enjoyed the 2 Alice games so this is unfortunate but it's also unsurprising.

Don't get attached to anything under EA.
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I really don't think EA is to blame, I think it's unlikely that the game was gonna be good, nor that the development process would be timely. EA gave them a chance and what they saw wasn't enough.

I think anyone would cancel this project.
 
J

Juza

Member
He had been chasing EA for years to get the license rights or EA to fund the next entry which was already planned, the concept, the story ,the setting ...etc

But EA every time promise him that they will look into it. and now they refused! Fuck them.

Alice: Madness Returns was a nice game.
 
Needlecrash

Needlecrash

Member
SidViscous said:
Read American McGee's wiki page if you haven't already, the guy has an absolutely insane upbringing/life and I wish them all the success.
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Jesus Christ.....this guy had a real fucked up life growing up. Imagine you coming home from school to a house that's cleaned out, minus your Commodore 64, books, clothes and bed. Him being straight up abandoned by his mom like that sounds like a Lifetime movie plot.

I hope fortune favors him soon.
 
SoraNoKuni

SoraNoKuni

Member
Alice madness returns was hugely underrated for it's time, if this game shadow dropped today with today's standards it would be a hit.

Reviewers of that time were completely over their heads and on a payroll, not that now it's any better...
 
SolidQ

SolidQ

Member
peronmls said:
I thought madness returns was pretty good and had great design. It’s a game I wouldn’t forget.
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finished both alice few mont's ago, both for me one of best adventure-platformer, i was hope for 3rd, but f*cking EA with microtransactions, nft etc
 
diffusionx

diffusionx

Gold Member
radewagon said:
Dear American McGee,

Alice in Wonderland is public domain. Change a few things and kickstart this bad boy. You don't need EA.
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I dont mean to be "akshully" guy but while Alice in Wonderland is PD, *this* Alice is not and if EA owns it, well then that's it.
 
SF Kosmo

SF Kosmo

Al Jazeera Special Reporter
He hasn't had a game released in like 10 or 12 years. Tough run. I enjoyed a few of his games. Of all of them Scrapland is probably the one I'd most like to see revived.
 
Krathoon

Krathoon

Member
There is also Bad Day LA and Scrapland. Scrapland is on Steam.

But yeah, he kind of dribbles out video games, but they are pretty inspired.
 
nkarafo

nkarafo

Member
I loved Madness Returns. I remember the art direction being great. I also remember the hair physics tech was the best, without needing a beast hardware to function.
 
NeverYouMind

NeverYouMind

Member
SoraNoKuni said:
Alice madness returns was hugely underrated for it's time, if this game shadow dropped today with today's standards it would be a hit.

Reviewers of that time were completely over their heads and on a payroll, not that now it's any better...
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I honestly did not like the level design of the sequel and thought it was too large and too linear. The first had some great ideas with unpolished mechanics, but it was not a slog like the sequel.
 
Northeastmonk

Northeastmonk

Gold Member
NeverYouMind said:
I honestly did not like the level design of the sequel and thought it was too large and too linear. The first had some great ideas with unpolished mechanics, but it was not a slog like the sequel.
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I remember the game had you start in this large open courtyard and the way forward was just a series of platforms and big gaps. There’s some fun art packed into the game, but it all drops once the motions start to pick up. Where I wanted a path, there was obtuse puzzle platform to get around.
 
Needlecrash

Needlecrash

Member
It's a shame too. If EA won't do anything more for the series, then they should give all the IP rights back to Mcgee.
 
bender

bender

What time is it?
Madness Returns would have been so much better if it were a third or half of its' original length.
 
IbizaPocholo

IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman


It's been a while since I talked about Alice: Asylum and questions keep appearing in my comments so... a few final words.

The Alice: Asylum Discord Server is still up and running - so if you want a place to continue your conversations, that's a fine place to start. Details for joining it are over on the (now hibernated) Patreon page: https://patreon.com/americanmcgee

You will also find that the final posts to Patreon contain answers to other Frequently Asked Questions.


As always, I am incredibly grateful to the Alice community for their years of support. And I hope everyone has a happy future.
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Drizzlehell

Drizzlehell

Banned
IbizaPocholo said:
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This is really heartbreaking. I genuinely wouldn't even feel bad if EA would go down in flames at any point in the future. Their idiotic spite with this is equal parts sad and infuriating. Not only they won't let Amercian produce a new game in the series despite the fact that they're literally sitting with thumbs in their ass while he did all the work trying to pitch it, but they'll also hold the intellectual property hostage forever despite not wanting to do anything about it.

It's almost as if all those cunts in suits lack any creative thought in their heads so they just steal ideas from others and hoard them in their vaults in hopes that one day they could just pick it out of there and barf out an aborted version of that IP if it ever becomes popular with the kids in the future (see: "dead space").
 
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NeoIkaruGAF

NeoIkaruGAF

Gold Member
Madness Returns wasn't really a good game so this may not be bad news.
Astounding art and direction. Poor, repetitive gameplay that looped again and again and again while the levels quickly got way too long for their own good.
 
H

Hypereides

Gold Member
IbizaPocholo said:
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This is so sad and tragic. Its awful what kind of miserable company EA has evolved into.

Drizzlehell said:
This is really heartbreaking. I genuinely wouldn't even feel bad if EA would go down in flames at any point in the future. Their idiotic spite with this is equal parts sad and infuriating. Not only they won't let Amercian produce a new game in the series despite the fact that they're literally sitting with thumbs in their ass while he did all the work trying to pitch it, but they'll also hold the intellectual property hostage forever despite not wanting to do anything about it.

It's almost as if all those cunts in suits lack any creative thought in their heads so they just steal ideas from others and hoard them in their vaults in hopes that one day they could just pick it out of there and barf out an aborted version of that IP if it ever becomes popular with the kids in the future (see: "dead space").
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Faust said:
I adored Alice and Madness Returns. Sad to see us never getting a continuation with it. EA should just sell the damn rights or let McGee make his game. They are doing nothing with the IP anyway.
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Its an asset with strategic value. EA sits on a ton of cherished and dormant IPs, but will only swing them out if they can use them to make a quick buck or shut down competing developers into submission. EA isn't a company that puts creativity/creators first.
 
ZoukGalaxy

ZoukGalaxy

Member
Not a particular fan of the licence but some kind of novelty in the landscape would have been nice. When you think that, a very long time ago, EA was a company know to publish creative and original games.
Arts from EA is long gone sadly..
 
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kiphalfton

kiphalfton

Member
NeoIkaruGAF said:
Madness Returns wasn't really a good game so this may not be bad news.
Astounding art and direction. Poor, repetitive gameplay that looped again and again and again while the levels quickly got way too long for their own good.
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Exactly. I got both game, beat the first one and couldn't get all the way through the second one.

From what I recall, the first felt like an action adventure game. The second just felt like a third person shooter.

If they could have shifted the third game to be based more on adventure (because who doesn't want to explore wonderland), it would have probably been great.

Unfortunately we'll never find out, but I guess it is what it is.
 
IAmRei

IAmRei

Member
So sad, the game itself is pretty inspiring visually, especially oilly baby monster. The feels of dark fantasy is strong in the games. Unfortunately ... Wish the game sequel someday see the day
 
JonSnowball

JonSnowball

Member
Hypereides said:
This is so sad and tragic. Its awful what kind of miserable company EA has evolved into.
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I saw this earlier in the year: https://www.zoom-platform.com/news/title-updates-a-new-game-and-a-public-letter

EA used the death of someone on the board of this little know digital storefront as reason to cancel their distribution contract.

"As you are likely already aware, Bernie Stolar, our former Chairman, passed away on June 22nd, it became public knowledge on June 25th. EA management sent me a condolences message at Midnight on July 6th...followed 9 hours later by a contract termination notice. The only possible reason being Bernie's death was a material change in the Company and, therefore, acceptable cause. This was not one of our typical ZOOM Platform contracts, but a slightly customized Codemasters agreement."
 
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