E3 2008: Ubisoft proclaims I Am Alive

Ubisoft scored a new franchise last year with the 6 million-selling Assassin's Creed, and the experience has apparently given the France-based publisher a taste for success. In its annual report, Ubisoft said that it was launching five new series in the current fiscal year: Haze, Shaun White Snowboarding, H.A.W.X., EndWar, and one other, unnamed project.

That project might have been named today when the publisher capped off its E3 Media & Business Summit conference with the announcement of I Am Alive. Described as a "survival-adventure" title, the game is set in a devastated Chicago, where a protagonist named Adam struggles to get by in the wake of an unknown catastrophe.

The trailer shown during the Ubisoft conference suggests that the catastrophe was actually the result of an earthquake. A billboard alongside the city's distinctive elevated train tracks references "ruaumoko," the Maori god of earthquakes and volcanoes.

I Am Alive is set for release on unspecified current-generation consoles in the spring of 2009. The game is being developed by Darkworks, the Paris-based development studio behind Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare and Cold Fear.