American McGee to focus on free-to-play PC titles and mobile platforms

News by Stace Harman Contributor

Published on April 21, 2011

Spicy Horse studio head, American McGee has said that Alice: Madness Returns "may be the last retail box product that we do for some time." However, he has an idea or two about Alice 3, should EA ever choose to make it.

Speaking to CVG, McGee said that after Alice: Madness Returns his studio intends to focus on free-to-play PC titles and handheld platforms.

"I think the handheld market in general, and especially the Android environment, is a real boon to the industry and to developers and consumers and I think it's going to open up a lot more possibility for very creative, exploratory ideas around gaming and around social platforms and the mobile platforms all linked together," he said.

"Alice may be the last retail box product that we do for some time but for the next couple of years we're going to focus very exclusively on free-to-play PC downloadable games and then also push those other mobile platforms."

But, should EA come knocking, McGee has a vision for a third instalment in the deranged action franchise.

"From a thematic standpoint it was always the intention that in the first game she ultimately overcame the psychological world - she overcame the world of her fantasy - and in the second game, one of the core themes is that she's got to maintain or gain control of the physical space, the physical world of reality," he said.

"Were we to push forward into another title after this, there's an opportunity there to show a blending together of those two things. I can't go into a lot of the thinking behind it but certainly there are some thoughts about what we would do if we did another product after this."

Let's just hope we wouldn't have to wait quite so long for a third instalment - there were eleven years between the original American McGee's Alice and its sequel which is due out on PC, Mac, PS3 and 360 on June 14 in the US and June 16 in Europe.

Details were recently unveiled of how buying Alice: Madness Returns on PS3 or 360 will net you code that can be used to download a free version of American McGee's Alice via PSN or XBL.