Fans have waited over a decade for American McGee’s Alice: Madness Returns to be available. Since then, they have not received any information regarding a third title. Even though American McGee set up a Patreon page with many supporters and a shop to raise money for the production of Alice: Asylum, the developer has just revealed that the third game will not be produced after all.
When it was first announced in 2017, Alice: Asylum would be the third installment after Madness Returns. At that time, Americans divulged various tidbits and details regarding the labor behind the scenes to make the game a reality. The publisher and intellectual property (IP) owner, Electronic Arts, had no interest in providing financial support for the project. They were also not willing to sell the intellectual property back to the United States so that the creator of Asylum could look for a new publisher for the game.
Although EA initially rejected the game, American and his team continued to work on the Design Bible for the game personally. This book detailed every aspect of Alice: Asylum that was being considered for inclusion. Fans contributed to the development of the behind-the-scenes content by contributing to his Patreon and purchasing things from his online store. Yet none of this was enough, as evidenced by the fact that people in the United States flocked to Twitter today to declare the initiative dead.
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. https://t.co/hyprIq9MpE#gamedev #aliceasylum pic.twitter.com/sIE3bKbaVY
— ⚓ American McGee ????☠️ (@americanmcgee) April 7, 2023
The Design Bible for Alice: Asylum was finished being worked on at some point in the future. After a few weeks, American tried contacting EA to find out if they would be willing to assist. Despite the success of the last game, Electronic Arts made the difficult decision that the time is yet to be appropriate for the release of the third installment. They assured the Americans that they had no intention of selling intellectual property. This makes it impossible to publish the game under any circumstances.
American has announced that he is completely withdrawing from the project as a result of EA’s attitude as well as the protracted legal battle to obtain rights to Alice. Even though he was in charge of both the first and second games in the series, he will not participate in developing the third installment. According to what he has indicated, he will instead concentrate on spending time with his family and managing his online store.