In a world full of remasters, sequels, and licensed shovelware, EA decided it’s just not the right time to greenlight a new Alice game.
American McGee had an update for Patreon fans after submitting a 50 million dollar budget proposal for the 3rd installment in the American McGee Alice franchise.
The most recent update from the Patreon was a 434 page design bible for the game, which included all the assets from weapons to characters. Along with it was production bible that was also given to EA during a proposal for publishing, and a game studio Virtuous Studios was ready to go. Shortly before that the full script for the game was also released. So if you are itching to get a taste of what the game could have been, there is a lot there to read through and get an idea.
However, even with all this ready to go EA decided it wasn’t the right time for the franchise to return.
On the question of funding, they have ultimately decided to pass on the project 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.
Look it was easy for me to jump to the conclusion of “what the hell EA,” but reading some remarks that the proposal included a 50 million dollar budget is probably part of the problem. By comparison EA’s own Battlefield franchise has a development budget of 100 Million dollars. Some of the best indie games we’ve played had a budget under 1 million dollars (most typically around 200k). The notes also suggest this doesn’t include marketing or post production budgets, which is typically double the cost of production.
With open sources like Unreal Engine 5 assets, and other outlets to utilize as a smaller developer, it just seems like too much for me. Perhaps it isn’t the biggest reason EA said no, but I would assume a more comfortable budget would have helped.
Looking further into it, I don’t think the studio really knew the “cult” status of the game overall. Attempting to gain followers, McGee posted that it took 3 years to attain 50k email subscribers. 2 years later the Facebook page is topping out at the same number.
What we do know is that EA disappointed us by outright saying no, but the real wound is the fact EA wouldn’t license out the American McGee franchise so the game could be made elsewhere. They note “Alice” is an important part of the catalogue, and yet we haven’t seen the first two games remastered for new consoles. The last game, Madness Returns, was released on PS3 and Xbox 360, and is currently unplayable on PS4/PS5. You can play it via backwards compatibility on Xbox Series, but an updated version would be nice. The original title has never been remastered and it was already showing its age during the rerelease of the sequel.
But this hurts mostly because McGee has Virtuous Studios helping make the game, so if EA were to license it in someway then it could have still been made. Perhaps under the EA Originals branch?
The route American McGee’s studio should have taken is to look at easy help from the first two games. Take the original games, remaster them, get EA some easy money, and grow the audience. We saw how amazingly well Dead Space and Resident Evil has done as full remakes, but you could even bridge the gap via a re-release and see how it does. Again, new audiences don’t even know what these games are, so brand awareness is key here. (The original game was initially going to be on PS2, that’s how old it is!)
But it seems American McGee was only passionate about one project, and that’s okay too, that passion would have made an amazing game. During the end of the Patreon announcement McGee posted that this was the last attempt to make a game. He notes he has “no interest in any other game, or any other Alice title.” He also notes that if EA picks up the license and makes the new game he also will take no part in that either. McGee noted the “climate of the current development” cycle is the most concerning, something he’s been vocal about before.
Instead McGee is focusing on his plushie company, which seems to be doing well as he just paid back the great John Carmack this year.
So while I’ve been extremely excited to see a new game in the Alice franchise, it’s a shame to see it come to an end. There is hope that EA might see the outcry of this and actually greenlight a new Alice game, but we can only hope it has the same “Madness” character to it.
