Why is American McGee even trying to make Alice 3?

[Gubensito]

Hi,
I am a new lover of this series and I want you to know that I woulld be reallly grateful if a third game does see light one of these days. So I have read that American Mcgee want to make a new Alice game but they do not have the rights to make it, eventhough he is making it. So I wonder why is American McGee even trying when it is obvious that EA is not giving permisson.

[CONAN_Fabrice]

First of all, I am not sure EA can own the "American McGee" name, or at least it would be a license, which expire (same thing for "Colin McRae" games by Codemasters that, once the license expired, rebranded the name "Dirt").

You can also see that this game is called "Alice - Madness Returns" and not "American McGee's Alice - Madness Return"

Most important thing is that "Alice in wonderland" is on the public domain, which allows anyone to make use and adaptation of the original (e.g. Tim Burton and his movies) without any legal issues.

So, once again, EA can not own, only license, the "American McGee" brand, and can not own, nor license, the "Alice" Universe either...

So American McGee can freely do anything he wants from his name and the "Alice" Universe.

Finally, you can see that American McGee is only advertising for memorabilia while pushing you to Patreon him. There are no news on the game itself really.

[Ryuu]

No, American McGee's version of Alice is distinctive enough to not fall under public domain, and since he was working for EA when he made it — rights belong to EA unfortunately.

He's still trying to come to an agreement with EA.

[CONAN_Fabrice]

Originally posted by Ryuu:

No, American McGee's version of Alice is distinctive enough to not fall under public domain, and since he was working for EA when he made it — rights belong to EA unfortunately.

Nothing that a good lawyer can't sort out. But I guess that EA can get better lawyers than American McGee.

Was the first "Alice" edited by EA too?

Originally posted by Ryuu:

He's still trying to come to an agreement with EA.

So let's say for now he can't do it, I found that it's pretty dishonest to see him (false) advertising on a hypothetical 3rd instalment, asking/pushing people for funding through a regular crowdfunding while luring them in with some goodies.

[Ryuu]

Originally posted by CONAN_Fabrice:

Originally posted by Ryuu:

No, American McGee's version of Alice is distinctive enough to not fall under public domain, and since he was working for EA when he made it — rights belong to EA unfortunately.

Nothing that a good lawyer can't sort out. But I guess that EA can get better lawyers than American McGee.

Maybe, i'm not a law expert. But i'm sure derivative works like Disney's Alice and McGee's Alice are both protected.

> Was the first "Alice" edited by EA too?
Dunno, wiki says just "The game, developed by Rogue Entertainment and published by Electronic Arts", so it depends on specific agreements. But American mentioned several times in kickstarter posts and elsewhere that all rights belong to EA.

Ah, more:
"McGee soon joined Electronic Arts and worked as creative director on American McGee's Alice (with Rogue Entertainment), which garnered favorable reviews and became a cult classic. After finishing Alice, McGee left EA "in frustration" when the company fired his creative partner R.J. Berg and shut down Rogue Entertainment."

Well, so he already made one sequel while being outside of EA, no reason he can't do it again?


"In July 2016, McGee announced the closure of Spicy Horse on Twitter. Inspired by Jacques Cousteau, he is now pursuing the "life at sea;" travelling, making games and doing vlogs across South East Asia on a sailboat. He created a Patreon account to seek support for this endeavor."

[[SF]Lone_Walker]

So EA can sell the game ''Alice Madness Returns'' forever ? Or someday the license will expire and they will remove the game from Origin (Or Steam if it gets re-released) ?

[𝐁𝐨𝐥𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐤]

I've readed somewhere that McGee was trying to negociate the license rights to the game with EA, since they don't want it, he was trying to buy the license, so he could do it and release it at all digital platforms, including Steam, since EA wasn't selling his new games here. And about the game removal on Steam, it could be for two reasons: maybe after spicy horse closure, they've asked to remove the game, since they won't update it anymore, or could be EA that did it, but it wouldn't make sense, since their other games still live on Steam.

[Lord Tony]

Honestly he should just let Alice die and make a new IP

[Lord Tony]

His mistake was working with EA games in the first place and he's a fool to think he will ever get a meaningful experience with EA again

[Lord Tony]

american mcgee was also a fool to sign exclusive deals with Grimm for gametap.

He should have just put it on steam lol