When life gives you intellectual property rights, make a loophole! American McGee, the mastermind behind the cult-classic *Alice* games, has just pulled off the greatest heist since the Mad Hatter stole time itself—he’s making a sequel without actually making a sequel. Take that, EA!
For years, fans have been banging their heads against the wall, screaming into the void, and lighting ceremonial candles for a third *American McGee’s Alice* game. But EA, being EA, was like, “Nah, we’re good.” Then, in a plot twist that would make Lewis Carroll himself spit out his tea, McGee revealed his master plan: a game based on his Plushie Dreadfuls line that’s *totally not* Alice, but *totally is* Alice. It’s the Schrödinger’s sequel of gaming!
“I’ve made an explicit point to link the start of the Plushie Dreadfuls game with the end of *Madness Returns*,” McGee explained, probably while twirling his mustache. “There’s a kind of obvious overlap, but not one that gets us in trouble with the lawyers.”
Translation: “I’m gonna make the game I want, and EA can’t stop me because I’m sneaky like a Cheshire Cat in a lawyer’s office.”
The new protagonist, James (because apparently Alice was taken), is described as an orphan adopted into a “dark, evil family.” So basically, Alice but make it male and slightly less British. McGee claims this will give him “closure,” which is game developer speak for “I’m gonna do what I want and you can’t stop me.”
The original *Alice* games took the whimsical world of Wonderland and dunked it in a vat of nightmare fuel, existential dread, and Victorian-era trauma. It was like if Tim Burton directed a video game while on a particularly intense absinthe bender. The sequel, *Alice: Madness Returns*, continued this tradition by asking the question: “What if Alice wasn’t just mad, but REALLY mad?”
Now, after 25 years of waiting, fans are finally getting their third helping of psychological horror-platforming goodness. It’s just wrapped in a slightly different package with a protagonist who’s legally distinct from Alice but emotionally identical. It’s the *Chipotle* approach to game development: same great taste, different wrapper!
The Plushie Dreadfuls, those adorable little harbingers of doom that represented everything from mental health conditions to LGBTQIA+ identities, are getting their moment to shine. Because nothing says “therapeutic” like a stuffed animal that looks like it crawled out of your deepest, darkest fears!
So here we are, folks. EA thought they had American McGee cornered, but instead, they got outplayed by a man who clearly learned all his strategic thinking from playing chess with the Queen of Hearts. The game is coming, the story continues, and somewhere in a corporate office, a lawyer is sweating profusely while trying to figure out if they should be angry or impressed.
Sometimes the best way to beat the system isn’t to fight it—it’s to find the rabbit hole and go down it with style. Well played, Mr. McGee. Well played indeed. 🐇🕳️🎮
Pixel P. Snarkbyte, widely regarded as the “Shakespeare of Sh*tposts,” is a video game expert with a unique knack for turning pixels into punchlines.
Born in the small town of Respawn, Pennsylvania, Pixel grew up mashing buttons on an ancient NES controller, firmly believing that “blowing into the cartridge” was a sacred ritual passed down through generations.
Pixel P. Snarkbyte: proving that life, much like a buggy open-world game, is better with a little lag-induced chaos.
