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If Alice: Madness Returns was dead on arrival , that would at least be aesthetically consistent. The 2011 sequel to American McGee's Alice went even deeper into Alice in Wonderland's red guts than the first game, pulling out the most nightmarish aspects of the Victorian children's story and tying their shadows into a neat action-adventure. But it suffered from abysmal launch sales , with reviewers and fans both being disappointed by what they felt were rough controls and level design.

Still, game designer American McGee wasn't giving up. McGee, who created the series after being fired by id Software, hoped to gather enough community support for a follow-up , and the most diehard Alice believers gave it to him in spades. But after a decade of this cutting fan pressure, publisher EA finally made a decision in 2023 : there would be no more Alice games.



They blamed the "analysis of the IP" and market conditions. Was it all over? Would Alice have to lie facedown in the graveyard once and for all? Not exactly. Alice: Madness Returns doesn't just live, it thrives.

"Even though EA was going to let Alice die," says 33-year-old Twitch streamer Foxfire47 , who has been a fan of the series since the first game released in 2000, "the fans were absolutely not." She credits Madness Returns’ lively online fanbase to McGee himself. He began working on a proposal for a potential follow-up, Alice: Asylum, in 2017 , and encouraged fans to contact EA directly to show their support.

His now reti.

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