EA decides to cancel American McGee’s Alice: Asylum game
Shaun M Jooste 
Alice: Asylum is no more… In the year 2000 when I was 20 years old, I saw a discussion about a new horror game in our local NAG (New Age Gaming) magazine that featured Alice in Wonderland. American McGee’s Alice took horror fans by storm as we played a darker version of the tale we’ve become used to.
While many of us have been waiting for the third instalment to be completed, EA has decided to cancel Alice: Asylum altogether.
Alice: Asylum will no longer be published, thanks to EA
It’s been a long road for American McGee and us fans. I remember when I had a brief chat with him a few years ago when I was planning to interview him for a different gaming site. Unfortunately, I never did get the chance to ask him the questions I had in mind when Alice: Asylum had just started production, as I stopped writing content for that site.
Unfortunately, it looks like we’ll not see Alice: Asylum escape the madness of EA. The game publisher has decided not to move forward with the series and remove the licence from American McGee. I went to check on his Patreon page, and the developer has even stated to no longer support the project due to this decision.
Here’s the Tweet from American McGee on the Alice: Asylum decision that caught my attention:
He also covers in more detail what happened and why on a Patreon Post.
“After several weeks of review, EA has come back with a response regarding funding and/or licensing for “Alice: Asylum”
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.”
I’m sorry to make this about me, but this is almost exactly the same wording I received from Konami regarding the permission I had for my Silent Hill novels after 8 years of working on them. They also came back to me and told me it had to do with protecting the IP, and decided to pass on letting me continue.
To be honest, there was a subtle hint that they felt my books wouldn’t bring them enough money, or that my name or that of Celenic Earth Publications wasn’t big enough for them.
It’s disheartening when we creators and developers are simply brushed aside in this way. They don’t realise how much something like this impacts us. We have a passion for the brand, we love creating stories for it, but all they see is their bottom line. If only they knew how much it also uplifts us and helps us make a name for ourselves.
In any event, I feel saddened by what’s happened to American McGee and Alice: Asylum. It’s not only because it resonates so deeply with me, but he’s worked so hard on the game and garnered so many followers. While I haven’t written or spoken about him for a while, I’ve quietly been watching his progress on his games, and now I’m keen to see what he plans for the future.
Perhaps he and I should team up to bring some of my epic fantasy novels to the gaming world and show EA and Konami what we’re made of. It’s a good thing Celenic Earth Publications is moving into the game publishing world with Celenic Game Studios, then.
