American McGee: EA wanted to "trick" gamers with Alice: Madness Returns trailers

In a Reddit AMA thread , Alice designer American McGee stated that the horror tone in early Alice: Madness Returns videos wasn't his choice, and that EA used its control over trailer production company Shy the Sun to manipulate the game's advertising against his will.

"What was frustrating was how EA marketing interfered, telling STS from the start that all creative direction and final say would come from them, not from us (the developer/creator of the story/tone)," McGee wrote . "That resulted in trailers that were much darker and gorier than the game, and that was a calculated disconnect created by EA. They wanted to 'trick' gamers into believing Madness Returns was a hardcore horror title, even though we refused to develop it in that tone."

McGee's criticism took a harsher turn, accusing EA of "tricking" horror fans into buying Madness Returns by presenting it as such. "It's all a part of the race to the bottom EA, Activision, and the other big publishers are engaged in," McGee declared. "Expect to see it gets worse before it gets better." Ouch.

Apart from Vorpal Blade-sharp denunciations of EA's practices, McGee is also working on the free-to-play RPG Akaneiro: Demon Hunters, a Kickstarter-aided project which is currently in beta.

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Omri Petitte is a former PC Gamer associate editor and long-time freelance writer covering news and reviews. If you spot his name, it probably means you're reading about some kind of first-person shooter. Why yes, he would like to talk to you about Battlefield. Do you have a few days?