American McGee leaves game development as EA passes on ‘Alice: Asylum’

Veteran game designer American McGee has shared that he will be stepping away from game development, following Electronic Arts (EA) turning down his pitch to create Alice: Asylum.

For several years, McGee has been pursuing the creation of Alice: Asylum; a continuation of the American McGee’s Alice adventure series.

However, the rights to the game are held by EA — and in a blog published on Saturday (April 8), McGee shared that after talks with EA, the company has turned down his long-running pitch for the game and declined to either fund or license the title.

McGee explained that EA turned down funding the game “based on an internal analysis of the IP, market conditions, and details of the production proposal”.

“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,” he added.

As a result, McGee shared that his team has “exhausted every option for getting a new Alice game made” and “there is no way forward” for Alice: Asylum.

Additionally, McGee said that the result means he will be stepping away from game production, and has “no desire” to be a part of the Alice series even if EA decides to pick up Asylum with another developer.

“For my part, I have also reached an endpoint with ‘Alice‘ and with game production in general,” said McGee. “I have no other ideas or energy left to apply toward getting a new Alice game made. Nor do I have any interest in pursuing new game ideas within the context of the current environment for game development.”

McGee has been involved with game development for several decades, and worked on a number of foundational shooters including Doom, Wolfenstein 3D and Quake.

To Patreon supporters who have backed early art and design efforts for McGee’s pitch, the Patreon blog said: “We knew going into this adventure that failure was a possibility. But we wanted to believe impossible things – and we had fun doing that up to the moment when reality forced itself into our Wonderland.”

In a follow-up post published today (April 12), McGee’s Patreon page confirmed that higher-tier backers will still be issued with the prints and plushies promised.

As for what’s next, McGee has shared that he will focus his efforts on Mysterious, his family-owned merchandising business. Earlier in the year, McGee paid back a debt to id Software founder John Carmack, using money made through Mysterious.

In other gaming news, Ubisoft has cut ties with a Rainbow Six Siege content partner accused of racism.