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Splinter Cell, Red Steel 2, new Ghost Recon delayed

Ubisoft pushes stealth action sequel and Wii first-person shooter/slasher to Q1 '10; I am Alive and next Tom Clancy title moved past March.

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The ever-elusive Sam Fisher is at it again. Just when gamers thought the long-awaited Splinter Cell: Conviction had finally been nailed down for a November 17 launch, Ubisoft again delayed the oft-postponed revamp for the stealth action series. The PC and Xbox 360 title will now ship sometime during the first quarter of 2010.

Sam Fisher's march to release looks suspiciously like a leisurely stroll.
Sam Fisher's march to release looks suspiciously like a leisurely stroll.

Unfortunately, Sam Fisher wasn't the only one pulling a disappearing act. The Wii first-person shooter-slasher Red Steel 2 will now be joining it in the first quarter of next year--the last quarter of Ubisoft's fiscal year.

Possibly making room for those two titles, Ubisoft pushed another pair of games into its next fiscal year, which begins April 1, 2010. The next installment of the tactical shooter series Ghost Recon and the new intellectual property I Am Alive were previously expected in early 2010, but are now set for sometime in the publisher's fiscal 2010-2011 year, which ends March 31, 2011.

While gamers are just finding out about the Splinter Cell and Red Steel delays today, Ubisoft has apparently known about them for some time. In the quarterly financial report announcing the slips, the Paris-based publisher maintained its sales target for the second half of its fiscal year, saying the postponements had already been factored in to its previously issued revenue guidance.

Originally announced at Microsoft's X06 conference, Splinter Cell: Conviction initially had a 2007 release window before being pushed to early 2008, then further into that year, and most recently this November. Conviction is also currently available for pre-order on the PC, but has been touted as a 360 "console exclusive" by Microsoft ever since its appearance at the Electronic Entertainment Expo last month. (The PC logo is also absent from the game's official Web site.) GameSpot initially reported the game as a 360 exclusive and regrets the error.

I Am Alive is another repeat offender when it comes to Ubisoft delays. The game had been announced at E3 2008 with a spring 2009 release date, but it was pushed back as development switched from developer Darkworks to Ubisoft's Shanghai studio.

This is the first postponement for Red Steel 2 and the new Ghost Recon. The long-rumored follow-up to the Wii launch title and the still-untitled installment in the durable tactical shooter franchise were both announced in April.

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