Even though EA holds the rights to the American McGee’s Alice series, American McGee has found a workaround solution to continue the storyline.
When all hope of a new American McGee’s Alice game felt like it was going down the rabbit hole, a new fix appears. In a recent interview, the game designer American McGee shared that his Plushie Dreadfuls line of plush rabbits will be getting a sequel game that does not break his contract with Electronic Arts (EA). Back in 2023, McGee shut down rumours of a new Alice game, since EA had no plans to make a third title in the cult-hit series. However, the last major update from McGee was that he was working on a game based on the Plushie Dreadfuls, back in December 2025.
For those unacquainted with Alice and Alice: Madness Returns, the game’s premise follows Lewis Carroll novels but presents a gloomy, cruel and violent version of the setting. The game centers on the novel’s protagonist, Alice, whose family is killed in a house fire years before the game’s story takes place. After several years of treatment in a psychiatric clinic, the emotionally traumatized Alice makes a mental retreat to Wonderland, which has been disfigured by her injured psyche.
The 2011 sequel, Alice: Madness Returns, saw Alice discharged from the clinic and living in a home for mentally traumatized orphans. Continuing to suffer hallucinations of Wonderland, she enters it again to face a new evil and find out more about her past. While McGee began his career at id Software working as a level designer on numerous Doom and Quake games, his real accolades and recognition started with these two games.
While EA is still the current IP holder of the two games, McGee has found a way to make a “spiritual successor” game. McGee recently spoke with GamesRadar, outlining his plan to tie the Plushie Dreadfuls game to the Alice games—but still in a way that does not infringe upon his ties with EA. “I’ve made an explicit point to link the start of the Plushie Dreadfuls game with the end of Madness Returns,” McGree explained, “and in doing that, you [can] call that a spiritual sequel. There’s a kind of obvious overlap, but not one that gets us in trouble with the lawyers.”
McGee went on to explain that the Plushie Dreadfuls game will star protagonist James. He hopes this would “achieve a certain level of closure” for him, and he hopes it will do the same for fans of the Alice series who were hoping for a third game. “Alice, in some ways, was drawing off of past experiences that I had as a child,” McGee said. “With writing the character for James, it’s a very similar thing. He’s an orphan, but he’s been adopted into this kind of dark, evil family.”
The cult following of this game series was praised for its dark, violent retelling of the children’s classic. The Plushie Dreadfuls were the game’s signature creatures. They were designed to represent mental health conditions, neurodivergence, emotions, and LGBTQIA+ identities, featuring symbolic, often dark or gothic designs in a soft, plush form to promote awareness and self-acceptance. Real-life plushies can still be purchased on the official website! Even though the series celebrated its 25th anniversary last year, it looks like a third game will be coming out to wrap up the trilogy—just not as clean on paper.
