Jagged Alliance 3 back on track

The Jagged Alliance series racks up rights-holders the way its characters rack up body counts. Originally published by Sirtech in 1995, the series has also appeared under the banners of TalonSoft, Interplay, and Strategy First.

Now the franchise has added another notch to its business partner bedpost, as German developer bitComposer Games today announced that it has acquired the worldwide licensing rights to the Jagged Alliance series from Strategy First, with the exception of a project the latter company is currently developing for social networks.

The first project to come from the deal will be Jagged Alliance 3, on which bitComposer has begun "preliminary development work," with an anticipated 2011 launch date. Given its preproduction stage, the game is apparently different from the previously announced Jagged Alliance 3, which Strategy First showed off at the 2007 Electronic Entertainment Expo, with a late 2008 date expected.

While the Jagged Alliance series claims a loyal fan base, that group's patience has been tested over the years. It's been six years since Jagged Alliance 2: Wildfire debuted on the PC to warm reviews. In that time, the only Jagged Alliance project to find its way to release was a DS adaptation that suffered a tepid critical response.