Although a Ghost Recon lunchbox would be kind of badass, now that I think about it. And Ghost Recon cereal? Tasty.

Via Superannuation [and Blue's News]

Splinter Cell Conviction and Red Steel 2, two of the breakout titles from this year's E3 Expo, won't be making their original 2009 release dates, according to Ubisoft's first-quarter 2009 sales report. The two titles are now slated for release in the 4th quarter of 2009, which in Ubisoft's case places their release sometime in the window of January to March 2010. Two additional titles, I am Alive and Ghost Recon, have been pushed to fiscal year 2010-2011, which kicks off in April of 2010. From Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot:

"We are disappointed that we have to postpone the release of several major games but we consider that this choice is the best one in the long-term interests of Ubisoft. Lastly, we are having to adjust our full-year targets to take into account the fall in business over the first half. The excellent response to our games at E3, as well as the high buzz generated for titles such as Assassin's Creed 2, Splinter Cell Conviction and Avatar, reinforce our belief that the company can achieve strong growth in the second half of the fiscal year."

During the conference call, Yves furthe rexplained that the team working on Red Steel 2 requested more time to polish all of the maps, and that the demo shown at E3 didn't reflect the quality of the rest of the game in its current state.

On the bright side, we should have plenty of money to buy presents for other people this Holiday season, right?

Highlights on the list include Q3 (November 2009 to December2009) releases for Assassin's Creed 2, which Ubi prez Yves Guillemot says will cost 20 percent more than the original and be a much bigger game; the long-delayed Splinter Cell: Conviction; the MotionPlus-only Red Steel 2; Wii-exclusive Shaun White Snowboarding: World Stage and Rabbids Go Home.

Announced for early 2010 (Q4 ranging from January 2010 to March 2010) are strategy title R.U.S.E., survival game I Am Alive and a new Ghost Recon.

Notably absent from the list is the previously-teased Beyond Good & Evil 2.

Among the games will be Assassin's Creed 2, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Conviction, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon and Anno. The company also plans to release three new brands, including I Am Alive, four movie games, including Avatar and a new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and tons more games ending in the letter Z.

"2009-10 looks very promising and our teams are working flat-out to provide gamers with the best the industry has to offer," said Ubisoft president Yves Guillemot. "Our line-up comprises several potential blockbusters with the launch of seven franchises, including Assassin's Creed, Splinter Cell and Ghost Recon, as well as four license-based games including James Cameron's Avatar, three new brands and a further-enhanced casual games portfolio. Although we have to be cautious in light of the current economic environment, we expect Ubisoft to once again be one of the most dynamic and profitable publishers in the games industry in 2009."

Guillemot also let slip that Ubisoft is indeed working on a MotionPlus-sporting Red Steel 2, but declined to discuss any details about the game.

Ubisoft expect the video game market to grow five to 10 percent in 2009 and also expect to invest more in blockbuster games and less on casual ones.

Not that they're giving up on their Petz or Imagine brands.

Yes, after lacklustre, lazy previous outings for both brands, new games in the series are to be shown off this year. Far be it from us to play the prophet, but if both games don't turn up as reboots for the franchises, we'll eat our soft, purple prophet's turbans.

Ubi readies new Ghost Recon, Rainbow Six [CVG]

And that's just the start. Eventually - tech and public interest allowing - the Endwar "universe" would act as the overarching Clancy universe, within which the storylines of each new Rainbow Six, Splinter Cell and HAWX missions would be played out, ultimately leading to the direct linking of each game's campaigns.

Like I said, it's pie-in-the-sky stuff. Details are thin. But hey, even if you can't stand the thought of a Clancy-branded Katamari sweeping the globe rolling up piles of cash money, you have to admit, it's a pretty neat idea.

Ubisoft to merge Tom Clancy range into Super Game [Gameplayer]

Xbox Live Is 5ive [Xbox.com]

I've accepted a Design Lead position at Bungie, where I'll be working on something a bit different than Ghost Recon. August 10th was my last day as a Sr Designer/Creative Director at RSE and Ubisoft.

Letter to the Community [Ubisoft Forums - Thanks Mike!]

In addition to adding new species to its popular Petz series, confirming that horse, cat and dog care sims would be coming to the Wii, Ubisoft revealed the first titles in its My Coach series. My Word Coach, which Ubi reports is "being developed in collaboration with linguists and will help players improve their verbal communication and vocabulary in a fun way" will hit the Nintendo DS and Wii this fall. Following that is My Life Coach for the Nintendo DS, a motivational personal coach for strengthening willpower.

You may remember that we posted recently about some Ubisoft language training games, also under the My Coach label, showing up on retailer sites. Now if we can just get some software to address Fahey's need of a furry coach.

More in the press release. Michael McWhertor

Ubisoft Announces Strategic Casual Video Games Expansion

Introduces New "My Coach" Line and Brings "Petz" to New Platforms

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM — May 21, 2007 — Today Ubisoft, one of the world's largest video game publishers, announced that it is expanding its casual video game business. Ubisoft has made significant investments and formed an internal development structure dedicated to the creation of games for everyone. Among the first projects of the new team are the introduction of the new "My Coach" product line and the significant expansion of the already successful Petz® franchise.

"Ubisoft has a proven track record of publishing and creating video games for non-traditional gaming audiences, with multimillion-selling brands like Petz and Rayman," said Yves Guillemot, chief executive officer at Ubisoft. "The timing is right for us to leverage our creativity and to open up the video games market to new consumers who will be attracted by content that can help them learn, grow and feel better in an entertaining way."

Ubisoft's new casual games structure will be led by Pauline Jacquey, executive producer of casual games at Ubisoft. Pauline joined Ubisoft in 1998, working as a producer on some of Ubisoft's best-selling brands including Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon® and Rayman®. Ubisoft will also continue to partner with third-party developers to publish casual game titles for the mass market.

"Ubisoft's vision for this business is unique," said Pauline Jacquey. "We are developing projects that make people feel that playing games is worth their while, allowing them to spend quality time with family and friends, learn a new skill, or improve their daily lives. By creating games with real-life benefits, we are creating games that appeal to everyone."

The "My Coach" series of games will allow players to improve themselves and learn in an interactive and stimulating way. The first two games in the line are "My Word Coach" and "My Life Coach." "My Word Coach," is being developed in collaboration with linguists and will help players improve their verbal communication and vocabulary in a fun way. "My Word Coach" can be played alone or with friends on Wii™ and Nintendo DS™ and will be released in Fall 2007. "My Life Coach" is being developed in collaboration with a behaviorist. "My Life Coach" is a personal coach that gives anybody concerned about their well being the willpower they need to change their habits the way they want in a motivating and fun way. "My Life Coach" will be available for the Nintendo DS in Christmas 2007.

Ubisoft will also continue to grow its extremely successful Petz® line of games and allow young players to learn how to take care of that special cat, dog or horse on their Wii for the first time. The Petz series sold more than 3.5 million units worldwide in fiscal year 2006-07.

A new Ubisoft site popped up today that seems to be for some yet to be named title. Mousing through the site you come across a number of audio files that seem to indicate that the game is set sometime in the future. There are also biblical references, including to Revelations 6:4 which reads: "And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat theron to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword."

The hidden forums on the site are already buzzing that this could be some sort of post-apocalyptic or just pre-apocalyptic game. The fact that the site references Ghosts, Splinter Cells and other special ops groups has the posters there hoping that this is some sort of mega-game that ties all of the Tom Clancy's franchises together into one final title. Sounds like a really cool idea.

Could this be Firehawk?

Oh and the tags for the site are: "jsf28555833-80604722, rev 64, rev64, Splinter Cell, Rainbow Six, Ghost Recon, GRAW, Clancy".

We know most of these already and Rev64 is obviously a tag for the revelations citation. My guess is that the JSF in the tag, and also mentioned in the sound files, refers to the Joint Strike Fighter program, a real-world program that develops advanced war aircraft. Hmm, sounds more and more like Firehawk.

Go on over dig around and then report back here, lets get to the bottom of this. Brian Crecente

JSF28555833-80604722

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 Demo [Major Nelson's Blog]

Tyrone Spellman, 25, will stand trial for the September murder of Alayiah Turman whom he beat to death after the 17-month old girl knocked over his Xbox 360. While playing a game of Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon, Alayiah pulled the console down with the attached controller. Spellman then "popped her in the face and then tossed her in the chair", killing her.

No word on whether prosecutors would seek the death penalty in this case. Sad. Michael McWhertor

Trial set for dad in beating death of tot over Xbox incident [Philadelphia Daily News]
Philadelphia Man Kills Baby Over Video Game [Kotaku]

It took me a long time to wrap my head around the fact that GRAW isn't the name of a kick-ass mid 80's heavy metal band, but the excellent 360 shooter Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter. End introductory non-sequitur.

In other exciting GRAW related news, however, the PC port is now gold and will be in stores on May 3rd. As someone who has drooled at all of the console screenshots and movies but can't justify a 360 to myself for one game, this is going to be my first opportunity to see if it lives up to the hype. Unless you count the PS2 version, as I was one of the few idiots who actually bought that. On the IGN game review scale, it's probably worth a 10, but on my review scale, it was two sharp halves of a snapped-in-half DVD plunged three inches into my blood-spurting thighs.

May 3rd can't get here soon enough!

College Hoops 2K6 (Xbox 360)
The 360 port of last years college basketball hit. Double the price, double the depth of field blur, double the FUN!

Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter (Xbox, Xbox 360)
The gorgeous tactical shooter from the house that Tom Clancy built will have Xbox Live gamers headshotting eachother into oblivion this Wednesday.

Burnout Revenge (Xbox 360)
The 360 port of last years college basketball hit. I mean driving game! More sparks, more damage, more everything! It was smart to wait.

Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams (PS2)
The fourth proper Onimusha game moves the series in a new direction. Early reviews? Promising!

Shadow Hearts: From The New World (PS2)
Midway passed on the third Shadow Hearts RPG, but Xseed took From The New World under its publishing wing. Will the west finally buy this game?

Pursuit Force (PSP)
The car-jumpin', car-shootin', super cop action title from SCEA was a hit at E3. Will the final product live up to the initial hype?

Tales of Phantasia (GBA)
The classic RPG that spawned a thousand Tales games gets remade for the GBA crowd.

Pokemon Trozei (DS)
Oops! Broke the bad anime license rule! The sliding puzzle title fills the Pokemon rut for now.

Since it's not a complete list of this week's tasty gaming morsels, let us know what else you're getting in the comments. Happy gaming!