Today Ubisoft released its first part of the Q&A developer videos that it will be slowly rolling out. Ubisoft previously asked users to create video questions for the developers of the game to answer and today marks the first video of answers to those questions. Most of them were trivial questions, not revealing too much about the upcoming game.

However one question and answer did catch out ears: Will there be a demo coming to Xbox Live? The answer is a simply “yes”. There were no other details shared in the video other than the demo will consist of possibly one level. It is unclear whether or not the demo will be a singleplayer or multiplayer demo but I would count on a SP demo showing up sometime early next month.

You can watch the video after the break

The guys over at Xbox360Achievements have published the achievement list for Splinter Cell: Conviction. There are a total of 45 achievements rounding off at 1000 points with the most most point-worthy achievement netting only 50 points. You’ll get achievements for completing various levels, challenges, co-op modes and purchasing new gear. There are also several secret achievements that have not been listed at this time and I can offer no speculation as to what they could entail. A full list of achievements can be found through the source link.

Splinter Cell: Conviction Achievement List [Xbox360Achievements]

The folks over at IGN got a nice present from Ubisoft today, a rock with a date written on it. The date, 4.13.10 (April 13th, 2010) signifies that the release date for Splinter Cell: Conviction is now set in stone! Pretty clever on Ubisoft’s part, although I would’ve preferred that we never got this far (the game was originally delayed from a late 2009 release to early 2010 and then again a few weeks ago to April of 2010).

Ubisoft Dates Splinter Cell: Conviction (Again) [IGN]

In a press release today Ubisoft has detailed revised objectives for the 2010-2011 line-ups.  Ubisoft is expecting to end the 2009 fiscal year with an operating loss due to several various factors. They loss is reflected as a result of lower-than-expected sales, underperforming titles, abandoned projects and delayed titles. Among these delayed titles, Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Conviction, has been delayed yet again to a new projected release of sometime in the month of April 2010 from its original delayed date of February 23^rd.  R.U.S.E, a real-time strategy World War 2 game, has also been delayed from March of this year to a vague release window of 2010-2011.

However amongst the news of delayed games comes the announcement of a new Assassin’s Creed “episode” which will be the first in the series to offer online multiplayer. We will also see new entries into the Raving Rabbids  and Driver series. Also the company has announced their plans to re-focus their efforts on their AAA franchises and the Xbox 360 and PS3 platforms after poor performance on other consoles and titles. You can read the full press-release after the break.

If a listing on Aussie retailer JB Hi-Fi is any indication, it appears that Ubisoft has plans to give Splinter Cell Conviction the collector’s edition treatment on Xbox 360.

While not yet officially announced, this premium offering is said to include voucher codes good for unlocking exclusive in-game content and redeeming a digital copy of Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory from Xbox Live Arcade, a 32-page comic book spanning the story events between Double Agent and Conviction, a making of DVD, and a Sam Fisher figurine. The listed price is $119.00 AUD ($100), which sounds fair considering the exhaustive amount of goodies contained within.

Taking into account the marketing pull Ubisoft is putting behind this one, it certainly sounds convincing enough to us. Here’s hoping official word on availability specifics and pricing isn’t too far off.

Splinter Cell Conviction Collector’s Edition Spotted - [eXophase.com]

Ubisoft has finally pegged a firm date on its oft-delayed stealth action title Splinter Cell Conviction, announcing that it will hit retailers across North American on February 23, exclusively on the Xbox 360 and PC.

In Conviction, players once again assume the role of operative Sam Fisher, now a renegade who is on the run after being betrayed by his former employer – the Third Echelon. With the law no longer on his side, Fisher must put a stop to a deadly terrorist plot that threatens the lives of millions.

Splinter Cell Conviction Dated, Hits February 23 - [eXophase.com]

As part of its fourth quarter financial documents, Ubisoft revealed that the oft-delayed stealth action title Splinter Cell Conviction has once again been pushed back, this time to 2010. The MotionPlus-exclusive samurai romp Red Steel 2 has also been rescheduled for 2010, dashing hopes for a fall or winter debut.

Both titles are now slated for a release in the company’s fourth fiscal quarter, which could mean anywhere between January 1 and March 31, 2010. Additionally, to accommodate these changes, the new Ghost Recon installment and I am Alive have been pushed out of fourth quarter release window to fiscal 2010-2011.

In a conference call held earlier today, Ubi CEO Yves Guillemot mentioned that the Red Steel 2 development team requested additional time to polish maps, ensuring that the level of quality is consistent throughout.

Splinter Cell Conviction, Red Steel 2 Delayed - [eXophase.com]

Ubisoft is aiming to deliver a seamless gameplay experience with Splinter Cell: Conviction, one that is completely void of any cutscenes, according to creative director Maxime Béland in a recent interview with IGN.

My dream – and I hope we can pull it off – is to have the whole game with no cuts. One fucking seamless experience with no stops! You saw it – what’s cool is that it hides the loading scenes; we play full-HD movies in full screen and you don’t really notice that we’re loading in the background.

We will do it – it’s just that sometimes, when you use the mirror to look under the door for example, we do a cut. But no! Right now, we weren’t able to do it for E3, but the idea is that next time Sam uses his mirror, he’s going to pull out his mirror, the camera’s going to shift down to the mirror and you’re there the whole time. Same thing with the sticky camera.

Sure, cutscenes certainly have their purpose, particularly in RPGs, but for a stealth-oriented action game like Splinter Cell there is less of a necessity to have them. Theoretically, while it is more effort on a developer’s part, most story bits in a game can be told through interactive elements, rather than forcing the player to sit through a scripted sequence. MGS creator Hideo Kojima may not agree, but we’d like to see more games take this approach going forward.

Splinter Cell: Conviction is due out this October, only on PC and Xbox 360.

Ubisoft Gunning for Seamless Experience With Splinter Cell: Conviction - [eXophase.com]

In this day and age, exclusives are a rare sight to behold, especially when coming from a third-party studio. That’s why folks were surprised when Microsoft announced at its E3 press briefing that Splinter Cell Conviction was coming exclusively to Xbox 360. Publisher Ubisoft explains why:

Splinter Cell conviction is a true Microsoft exclusive title and there are no plans to have Splinter Cell Conviction on other platforms. There are several reasons behind this choice. First of all, Splinter Cell games are historically linked with Microsoft platforms. The first Splinter Cell on the original Xbox was one of the first games to fully exploit the console’s technical possibilities. At that time, Microsoft really believed in the game potential and provided strong support to promote it. So, there is a “link of heart” between the franchise and the platform. Some games are like this (think of Final Fantasy for instance). The second reason behind this choice is purely linked to production. Having a single target platform means that we can optimize the game even further, because we only have one type of – console – hardware to support.

Fair enough. From a developer’s perspective, having one platform to target resources towards does make things easier. But that Final Fantasy comparison is iffy, seeing as XIII jumped ship to the Xbox 360 after numerous assurances from Square Enix that it would remain PlayStation-exclusive. That said, we expect there still is a chance that Conviction could land up on PS3 in the distant future, even though Ubi is outright dismissing such a port at this point in time.

Dev Q&A – Your Questions Answered [Ubi]

Ubisoft Explains Splinter Cell Conviction Xbox 360 Exclusivity - [eXophase.com]

Ubisoft is lifting the media gates for Splinter Cell Conviction later today, as evidenced by a flash-based teaser page over the game’s official site. One of the bullet holes positioned on top of the page indicate that “something” is coming on May 20, which is today’s date. Next to that is a line of text reading, “What makes a man confront his past?” Sorry to be vague, but that’s all we know.

It’ll be our first look at Conviction since the title underwent radical design changes last year. Get pumped.