GRAW 2 revealed, Assassin's, BIA delayed

Though company revenue announcements are often filled with fiscal-year projections, operating-income costs, and other financial mumbo jumbo, Ubisoft's first-semester report today gave news--both good and bad--that related to games.

Today's report wasn't just good for investors (Ubisoft was up 13 percent for the first half of its current fiscal year), it was also good for fans of the Ghost Recon series. The company announced Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2, which is scheduled for release in the company's fourth quarter (January-March 2007).

No details on the game, including its platforms or plot, have yet been released. The sequel's timing is a bit surprising, as the original wasn't released too long ago. Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter--which according to Ubisoft has sold more than 2.4 million copies across all platforms--was released in March 2006.

GRAW 2 isn't the only thing Ubi is prepping for gamers' springtime. Also coming by the end of March 2007 will be seven more Wii games from the publisher, including "one nonannounced new brand." With the seven previously announced Wii launch games from the company, Ubisoft expects to have 14 Wii titles in stores before April 2007.

Of course, with all this good news came a smidgen of bad tidings. With GRAW 2 sliding into Q1 2007, two games were pushed back. In a statement, the company said, "[The launch of GRAW 2] will take the place of Assassin's Creed and Brothers In Arms Hell's Highway, which will now strengthen fiscal year 2007-08," which runs from April 2007 through March 2008.

That info implies that the highly anticipated Assassin's Creed was planned for an early 2007 release, even though it was always tagged with a "TBA" release date. Hell's Highway was expected to be released in the first quarter of 2007. Both games are in development for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC.