Reflecting on Alice: Asylum and EA's Mismanagement of their Franchises

Concept Art for Alice: Asylum

The Failed Case of Alice: Asylum

Alice Asylum was meant to be a swansong ending to a trilogy of games that spanned over twenty years across many platforms. Having starting it's humble beginnings in 2000, the two game franchise would go on to sell over 1.5 million copies. Even coming from an era of heavy hitting Xbox and PlayStation exclusives, it's a miracle that merely two games, ten years apart from one another sold that much. However, given the rapid drive of not only EA but the entire gaming industry, enough is never enough.

To summarize the plot of what this new game would entail, it was meant to be a final psychological deep dive into the character of Alice herself. Having gone through the events of the first two games, the third deals with the aftermath of several major story implications. Primarily, the game's Design Bibles cites, "Ward of the state and prisoner within Rutledge Asylum, Alice escapes to the fantasy realm of Wonderland where her psychological trauma is transformed into a life-or-death quest filled with surreal and terrifying twists." (Alice Asylum Design Bible).

In the end of the development pipeline is always where the money is. This time, no amount of planning and preparation could have saved Alice: Asylum. For now, we just keep the public design bible close and read it over and over and over again.

EA's Game Catalogue Mismanagement

Given that we are dealing with a publisher such as EA, this would not be the first time they seemingly wipe a franchise off the face of the Earth. I will go over some notable examples of seemingly untouchable IPs that should have flourished.

Titanfall Cover

Titanfall

Titanfall was a strange two game franchise. Having released exclusively for the Xbox One launch line-up the game was boasting a new and innovative online only first-person shooter. Having released the following year after the Xbox One in 2014, it quickly became the hot commodity of this new generation of online gaming.

However, lacking a proper single player experience and being an exclusive for Xbox (after a dropped deal to move to PlayStation thirteen months after launch), Titanfall could have easily been a one and done game.

With the release of Titanfall 2, the game took a step up from its predecessor and included a proper (and well written) single plater campaign. With the great news that it would launch multiplatform, it was already being noted as a worthy step-up from the first Titanfall. Much like before, Respawn Entertainment were already underway to develop a third game in the series, presumably aiming for the 9th generation of console gaming.

The popularization of Fortnite and the Battle Royal craze that swept the industry in the late 2010s would officially mark the death of the Titanfall franchise. Instead of a third title, we were given a "spin-off", free-to-play battle royal game (Apex Legends). Since then, like Alice Asylum, we've heard nothing from the studio on a completed trilogy.

Burnout Cover

Burnout

The Burnout franchise was once a revolutionized standard in arcade racing games. Coming from the PS2 era, Burnout had already been developed by Criterion Games. Being acquired by EA in 2004, the franchise was already two games in releasing two years apart. After the acquisition from EA, Criterion would go on to make seven more games in the franchise. That being Burnout 3: Takedown, Burnout Legends, Burnout Dominator, Burnout Paradise, Burnout Crash and finally Burnout Paradise.

Having a broad display of games over many years, it would be a new franchise held by both Criterion Games and EA that would put the franchise to rest. The release and popularization of the Need For Speed franchise, originally released in 1994, was just another turning point for the studio.

With having Criterion on board, it was soon understood that they were off of the Burnout IP. EA decided to focus that talent, along with original developers to create an annual release that brought them the most money. Even though the Burnout franchise had it's steady releases, some releasing only a year apart, the early 2010 simply saw a shift in the racing market.

With an emphasis of realism and the rise of sim racing, classic arcade style racing games such as Burnout was a bloated franchise that offered little room for meaningful shake-ups within the racing space. This was when we say the sharp rise of other racing games such as Forza, Gran Turismo and of course, Need for Speed. Since then, the Burnout has only had one remaster of Burnout Paradise releasing in 2018.

And Our Wonderland, Though Damaged, is Safe in Memory... For Now

Taking it back to the tragedy of Alice: Asylum, all is not lost in Wonderland. Even though no new game is on the horizon, and the original creative team seemingly dismantled, we should count ourselves lucky to have the chance to buy Alice: Madness Returns. In the age of digital rights and distribution, we always face the potential of having the second Alice game removed from digital store fronts (as we've seen with the first Titanfall and Burnout).

However unlikely we would ever see Alice Asylum in the same creative light should it release in this market, we should (unfortunately) be accepting of the simple fact you can actually buy Alice: Madness Returns right now. I encourage you to keep discussing and even buying these old games whenever you can as they can be gone in an instant.

Alice seems to be locked in the asylum for now. To paraphrase an old EA headline, I guess players just don't like single-player games anymore.