Trivia / Jagged Alliance

• Acclaimed Flop: Jagged Alliance 2, at least in the United States. While its sales across Europe were enough to be considered successful, sales across the US were exceptionally poor with only about twenty-four thousand copies sold by the end of 1999.
• Saved from Development Hell: Jagged Alliance 3, which was released in 2023 after two decades of attempts from various developers.
• Sequel Gap: With Jagged Alliance 3's release in July 2023, there is a whooping 24 years between it and the previous main installment, Jagged Alliance 2. Though quite a bit less drastic is the distance between 3 and the spin-off Rage! which is "merely" about four and a half years difference.
• Troubled Production: To say that Jagged Alliance 3 had a rough road would be a serious Understatement.
  • After the collapse of Sir-Tech in 2003, the series ended up in the hands of Strategy First and Russian developer MiST Land South (later GFI Russia). Jagged Alliance 3D became mired as the two parties clashed over the game's direction, with GFI allegedly pushing for the removal of the strategic layer and turn-based combat system. In 2006, Strategy First pulled the series from them as 3D was still not ready for release after two full years in development. GFI Russia would salvage the work done on 3D and release it as Hired Guns: The Jagged Edge. It would be one of the last games GFI Russia would release.
  • Strategy First then handed the third game to Russian companies Akella and F3games with a tentative release date of late 2008, but it was pushed back to 2010. While Project Manager Andrew Kazakov blamed Strategy First demanding graphical improvements for the delay, the 2008 financial crisis was particularly brutal to the Russian economy and likely had consequences on the game. Development fell silent in 2009 as Strategy First was also rocked by financial issues, and German site games-on-net reported that Akella had ceased development amid ongoing layoffs and unpaid work disputes.
  • Early in 2010, German outfit bitComposer picked the series up from Strategy First with plans to develop the third game, but news on the project fell silent shortly after. It is likely that the mediocre reception to Jagged Alliance: Back in Action and Jagged Alliance Online scared bitComposer off from continuing development on the third game.
  • In 2015, THQ Nordic announced that it had acquired the series but made no immediate plans. In 2021, they finally announced that Jagged Alliance 3 was in development by Bulgarian studio Haemimont Games, with a trailer showing pre-alpha gameplay footage. Unlike the prior attempts, this one wasn't stopped by troubles and it was finally released in July 2023.
• What Could Have Been: Jagged Alliance 2 had a number of things cut during development, much of which has been reactivated in the 1.13 modification.
  • The game was originally designed around the Sci-Fi mode as the default, with no switch to turn off its features. The toggle for it came late in development.
  • Code for enemy air-strikes was found in the game, and early versions of the 1.13 mod reactivated them, only to find out why they were removed in the first place: They tended to crash the game, wreaked havoc with the game balance, and were far more dangerous toward civilians and enemy troops than your mercs. Later versions of the mod removed them with no plans to reactivate it again.
  • Item code for a Flamethrower weapon exists, but its description specifically notes that it was cut.
  Sorry, guys, but this item didn't make it into the game!
  • It was planned that the first time you take Drassen, it would trigger a massive counter-attack that would almost certainly force you to retreat. It was cut for balance and pacing reasons, but added back into the 1.13 mod (where it's been one of the more controversial additions).
  • Towns would have had enemy spies that would have caused trouble in captured towns until eliminated. The removal seems like it was done fairly late in development, as dialogue from Ira and Dmitri makes mention of spies while in a captured town.