American McGee is starting preliminary work on a third 'Alice' game

By Gabe Gurwin Published September 6, 2017

After the original American McGee’s Alice hit PC in 2000, years went by without much hint of a sequel, but developer Spicy Horse eventually released Alice: Madness Returns to middling reviews in 2011. Though the reception likely wasn’t what McGee and publisher Electronic Arts were hoping for, the game still found its cult audience, and it looks like a third game could be on the way.

“Fresh off the success of [card game] Out of the Woods on Kickstarter, American McGee will start work on a proposal for the next chapter in Alice’s adventures, tentatively titled Alice: Asylum,” reads an announcement on McGee’s website. “This proposal will include artwork, design outline, and a financial/business model. When this proposal is finished (and assuming all the numbers and constraints make sense) it’ll be sent to EA.”

Recommended Videos

While we hadn’t heard much about a new game up to this point, McGee did use Kickstarter to successfully fund the Alice: Otherlands animation series in 2014. The short filsm use drastically different art styles and bear little resemblance to the game aside from Alice’s clothing and actress Susie Brann. The short A Night at the Opera is particularly unsettling, with a stop-motion effect that makes the characters look like corpses.

Following the release of Madness Returns, McGee expressed disappointment with the way Electronic Arts had marketed the game, saying that the publisher tried to showcase more horror and gore in trailers than was truly representative of the full experience.

It remains to be seen if McGee will get Electronic Arts’ support on a third Alice game, but you can keep track of his progress by watching his live-stream gameplay sessions on YouTube. He’s currently playing through Madness Returns.

In addition to his work on the Alice series, American McGee has also worked as a designer on Doom II, Quake II, Grimm, and Akaneiro: Demon Hunters. His Shanghai-based Spicy Horse studio shut down in 2016, but will still function as the brand name for his projects moving forward.

What do you hope to see in a third Alice game? Do you hope it moves more into horror territory? Let us know in the comments.

Former Contributor

Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…

Topics

Gaming

Sony’s new PS5 Prism Collection gives a beautiful retro makeover to your console and controller

The new collection lets you peek inside your PS5 and DualSense controller with a glossy transparent design.

sony-prism-collection-ps5

Remember when transparent gadgets were the coolest things you could own? Sony is bringing that late '90s aesthetic back with its new PS5 Prism Collection. The gorgeous lineup gives your DualSense controller and PS5 console a glossy, see-through makeover in three eye-catching colors.

https://twitter.com/PlayStation/status/2115459064981512662?s=19

Gaming

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4’s Stranded mission had me hooked for hours, yet left me wanting more

I spent hours sneaking through North Korea, scavenging supplies, and clearing outposts, and I’d happily do it all again.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 Stranded mission gameplay

For years, Call of Duty’s campaign mode has used big, scripted set pieces to tell the overarching story amid all the adrenaline-pumping action. The 2023 Modern Warfare 3 tried to shake up the established formula by introducing a handful of short open combat missions, and I genuinely liked the idea, but the game's overall negative reception seeped into how those missions were received.

I feared the next iteration might abandon the idea because of the backlash, but I am glad it didn't. MW4’s “Stranded” mission uses the same approach, but instead of fragmenting it across the campaign, it puts it all in a single large-scale open-world mission.

Computing

The $1300 Acer Predator Atlas 8 handheld is finally US-bound, and its pre-orders are already sold out

Acer’s first gaming handheld to launch in the US arrives November 1 with Intel Arc G3 Extreme hardware.

Intel Arc G3 Extreme Hands On with Acer Predator Atlas 8

Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.

Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.