Alice: Madness Returns keeps disappearing and reappearing on Steam

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The game’s creator doesn’t even know how Alice found her way back to Steam

Alice - sprayed with blood - clasps a blood-stained knife as she stares into the camera
(Image credit: EA)

American McGee’s sequel Alice: Madness Returns has a fickle relationship with Steam as it continues to be uploaded and removed from the digital storefront without much explanation. 

Last weekend it was reported that Alice: Madness Returns has been removed from Steam again after only being returned to the Valve PC platform a few months prior. Before this, the sequel was removed from sale back in 2016 - apparently due to a digital rights management (DRM) issue - and stayed off the platform for five years until it returned earlier this year. 

This time, it looks like a different issue caused the game to be taken off of Steam as the game’s creator American McGee shared on Twitter. According to McGee, the issue could be somehow connected to the developer’s company Spicy Horse, which officially closed its doors in 2016, and the games associated with the company. 

"From what I’ve heard, in trying to remove Akaneiro from Steam (it was broken), all other Spicy Horse games also got removed," McGee said in a tweet. However, just two days later Alice: Madness Returns was back on Steam without any explanation. According to McGee, they have received "zero response from Steam support about any of this. Just Alice mysteriously reappears without a word."

We have reached out to both McGee and Valve to find out more about the issues Alice: Madness Returns has been having and will update this story with any new information. 

Elsewhere in all things American McGee’s Alice, fans will be thrilled to know that an Alice TV show is in the very early stages of development. Announced in January of this year, Radar Pictures boss Ted Field has obtained the rights to American McGee’s Alice and is planning a TV adaptation in partnership with Abandon Entertainment. 

If another Alice game is more what you’re after, we have good news about that too. American McGee has been working away on the third game in the series, Alice Asylum, and sharing development progress on a dedicated Patreon page. There’s no word yet on when we’ll get to play the new Alice game but, as of August 2021, the game does have a narrative outline. 

Looking for something to play whilst we wait for Alice Asylum? Take a look at our list of best horror games.

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Hope Bellingham
Hope Bellingham
News Writer

After studying Film Studies and Creative Writing at university, I was lucky enough to land a job as an intern at Player Two PR where I helped to release a number of indie titles. I then got even luckier when I became a Trainee News Writer at 12DOVE before being promoted to a fully-fledged News Writer after a year and a half of training.  My expertise lies in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, cozy indies, and The Last of Us, but especially in the Kingdom Hearts series. I'm also known to write about the odd Korean drama for the Entertainment team every now and then.  

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