Teaser for Alice 2 wasn't an 'official' trailer @ Gaming Target

Written by John Scalzo on November 05, 2009

News: At least, so says American McGee.

Remember that teaser trailer for Return of Alice (AKA American McGee's Alice 2) that was released on Monday? It turns out that the teaser was not an official trailer for the game and was actually made by a fan.

At least, that's what lead developer American McGee is claiming. According to McGee, the teaser and ReturnOfAlice.com were created by Troy Morgan, a fan of the original Alice and a professional artist. McGee also posted an explanation on his blog (which ReturnOfAlice.com now redirects to):

Yesterday, a few sites picked up a video of Alice made by one of our fans and confused it as an official trailer of Alice 2. I wanted to clear up any confusion Ц as I mentioned in my post it was unofficial, and does not represent any of the final art direction or story elements in Alice 2. We look forward to sharing information on the game in the future.

OK, that's the official party line. Now here's where it gets curiouser and curiouser.

First, the ReturnOfAlice.com domain is owned and operated by American McGee. The developer also posted a rant on his official forums about how Electronic Arts (the game's publisher) is very angry about this whole mess. In that post, he inadvertantly revealed that he was, at least partially, behind the trailer. Otherwise, why would EA be angry at him about a fan-made website/trailer if McGee and his Spicy Horse development team had nothing to do with it?

What it comes down to is that American McGee got caught with his hand in the cookie jar and now he's mad at everyone else. This also throws doubt on the "Return of Alice" and the 2011 release date. I'll we'll just have to go back to referring to it as American McGee's Alice 2.

Just in case you missed it, here's the trailer once more. It really does look amazing, official or not...