As Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot explained today in a conference call with investors:

Our clear goal today is to come more regularly with top brands. For example, it took three to four years to come back with Splinter Cell, Driver, Prince of Persia or Ghost Recon. We believe we can launch them more often without risk or brand fatigue.

This commitment to our franchises doesn't mean that we will not continue to launch new intellectual properties, as certain projects have been under development for some time and...will be launched in financial year 11 [April 2010 - March 2011] and financial year 12 [April 2011 - March 2012].

In all, the company plans to release at least seven "franchise titles" by the end of March 2011--already announced are Splinter Cell: Conviction, Driver, Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands, an Assassin's Creed 2 follow-up, Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, and Raving Rabbids--along with two new brands (of which R.U.S.E. is one) and five "online games," including Imagine Town, Trackmania 2 and Might & Magic Heroes Kingdoms.

All of the announced franchise titles are slated to arrive before Christmas 2010, the company clarified during a questions and answers portion that followed.

Regarding Trackmania 2, Guillemot noted that that Nadeo's 2010-due over-the-top racing game sequel will have "both an offline and online purchasing model." As for Driver, all that was said was that the game will sport some sort of online multiplayer mode.

The company also pledged "numerous projects for the launch of Natal and several games for the PLAYSTATION 3 Motion Controller as well as Facebook" as part of its "casual games strategy," of which there is "still a large potential to tap."