14 DAY TRIAL // A company known as bitComposer Games, headquartered in Eschborn, Germany, has announced having taken over the license for the Jagged Alliance series from Strategy First and that it will aim to launch the third game in the classic franchise at some point during 2011.
bitComposer might be interested in taking the series to the present day while retaining the mechanics and the feel that have enchanted the fans of the series since 1994, when the first game was put out by SirTech Software.
The title puts the players in the role of a mercenary leader who guides his employees on the battlefield while also managing the business side of the operations. The game is turn based and offers a wide array of weapons and skills that need to be used while clearing maps.
Wolfgang Duhr, who is the leader of bitComposer, stated, “Although Jagged Alliance 2 was published over ten years ago now, the game still represents a milestone in the genre and boasts a huge following of loyal fans. We are delighted to acquire this classic game for bitComposer, and want to continue the success of the previous titles in the series, while giving the new version a contemporary look, bearing in mind the strong features of its predecessors.”
Those who know the long history of failed Jagged Alliance 3 projects will not be hyped up too quickly. Strategy First managed to launch an expansion for Jagged Alliance 2, called Wildfire, but then projects for a 2D version of the game stalled.
A Russian developer, MIST Land South, was brought in and then fired from the project. In 2008, Akella and F3Games started working on Jagged Alliance 3 but that project also failed to get off the ground. Let's hope that the bitComposer initiative manages to produce a working Jagged Alliance 3 and the series does not go the way of Duke Nukem.