American McGee's Alice: The Asylum Patreon Project has announced that EA will not be underwriting the sequels to the 2000 and 2011 Alice series; according to McGee, EA has no intention of funding the project itself or licensing Alice IP to McGee.

"They ultimately decided to forego the project based on their internal analysis of the IP, market conditions, and the details of the production proposal. In response to a question about licensing, they said that 'Alice' is an important part of EA's overall game catalog and they are not prepared to sell or license it right now," McGee said in a post titled "End of the Adventure (open in new tab)" for the Alice.Asylum project said in a post titled: and McGee said in a post titled "End of Adventure (opens the tab)" at Alice: Asylum's Patreon project.

The Alice: Asylum project is an effort by McGee to put together a detailed pitch document, including art and concepts, in order to get EA to fund the production of the sequel or allow it through licensing of the world. Over the past year, he has been working on the World document and outline, all of which can be read online (open in new tab).

It's honestly odd that EA would say they consider Alice to be "an important part of EA's overall game catalog... 12 years ago." Even in the land of slow paced development, that's plenty of time for two or three sequels to be developed and released. I know I treat the most important ideas I have the same way: they sit on the shelf and get no attention at all.

As for McGee, he says this is the end of his "Alice" project: his Asylum project and his involvement in game production in general, not just in the Alice world.

"For me, "Alice" and game production in general have also reached an end point. I have no more ideas or energy left to create a new Alice game. Nor am I interested in pursuing new game ideas within the current game development environment.

"Even if someone could convince EA to make 'Asylum,' I want to make it clear that from this point forward I have no interest in being involved in that game or any other Alice-related development," McGee said.

So much for the strange, multi-year saga in the wild world of game development. Say goodbye to the world of American McGee's Alice. Or make your own Alice in Wonderland-themed game. Public domain. Just... Just do it. No one can stop you.