Ubisoft has confirmed to Shacknews that the always-on DRM in a few of its PC titles has been patched out, including Assassin's Creed II and Splinter Cell: Conviction. The Ubisoft representative reminded us that this was done on a case-by-case basis and that from the beginning the company had said it might patch the DRM out at some point.

New games, however, may still ship with the always-on DRM, Ubisoft confirmed to Shacknews. Read more »

Ubisoft's updated product lineup for its fiscal second-quarter reveals Mac versions of Splinter Cell: Conviction and Assassin's Creed 2 are incoming within the quarter, which ends September 2010. The report lists Assassin's Creed 2 as a EMEA release, which is the designation for titles in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, with no listing for North America. As for Splinter Cell, the lising is given no region specification but the July to September time frame gives the grizzled solider just enough time to sneak away from his previous "Microsoft-exclusive" arrangement.

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The "Games on Demand" section of Microsoft's digital distribution platform Games for Windows Live "will soon be the home of day-and-date game releases from the industry's biggest names," the company declared today.

Alongside the day-and-date releases, which kicked off today with Ubisoft's Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands PC, the company will be adding more games to the online catalog, including those that don't utilize Games for Windows Live functionality. Read more »

The next Splinter Cell game, built upon the Conviction game engine, will be produced by Ubisoft Toronto, the studio led by Assassin's Creed producer Jade Raymond. The studio announced this project through Gamasutra (via Joystiq) as well as an additional "triple-A" game in collaboration with Ubisoft Montreal.

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Prima, longtime provider of video game strategy guides, will now be offering digital guides through Steam. Using the Steam overlay, guides can also be accessed within a game. The digital guides also include videos, which are obviously not available in print.

Regularly priced at $19.99, all guides are 50% off to celebrate the launch. Currently, guides are available for: Read more »

The first premium-priced downloadable add-on for Splinter Cell: Convction will hit PC and Xbox 360 on May 27, 2010 in the form of the "Deniable Ops Insurgency Pack."

Priced at 800 Microsoft Points / $10, the downloadable content adds four new maps--New Orleans, Portland, Salt Lake City and San Francisco--for use in the stealth-action game's Hunter, Face Off, Infiltration and Last Stand multiplayer 'Deniable Ops 'modes. Read more »

With April 2010 behind us and May 2010 in full swing, market research firm The NPD Group has issued its monthly breakdown of the past month's U.S. console sales.

This month marks a departure from most, as the company only listed the units sold for half of the top ten and no longer offers PlayStation 2 hardware sales numbers. Read more »

Ubisoft has released patch 1.02 for Splinter Cell: Conviction on PC, a 23MB download available from FileShack which brings optimisations, DLC support and co-op fixes.

The full changelog for patch 1.02 follows below. Read more »

Ubisoft's Splinter Cell: Conviction uses the company's Uplay, an achievement and reward system that runs in addition to Xbox Live, PlayStation Network, Games for Windows Live, or Steam.

Gamers earn points by playing Ubisoft titles on any platform, which grants access to unlocks. Points are universal, so players can redeem points gained playing Assassin's Creed II in Splinter Cell: Conviction and so on. Read more »

Under the guise of new "environmental initiative," publisher Ubisoft today announced that it will begin replacing the traditional printed paper instruction manuals included in its PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 releases with digital in-game manuals later this year.

Explained the company:

Ubisoft's digital game manuals will provide multiple benefits for the player and the environment. Including the game manual directly in the game will offer the player easier and more intuitive access to game information, as well as allow Ubisoft to provide gamers with a more robust manual. Ubisoft internal data shows that producing one ton of paper used in Ubisoft's game manuals consumes an average of two tons of wood from 13 trees, with a net energy of 28 million BTU's (equivalent to average heating and energy for one home/year), greenhouse gases equivalent of over 6,000 lbs of CO2, and wastewater of almost 15,000 gallons.

Free downloadable content for the just-released Xbox 360 edition of Splinter Cell: Conviction is to arrive on a weekly basis, publisher Ubisoft has revealed.

The flow of free goodies kicks off tomorrow, April 15, when a new gun--MP7A1 Machine Pistol--will be available as an Xbox Live download via the game's EXTRAS menu. Read more »

[Update - 3:23pm CST] Microsoft has declared the issue fixed: "If you were seeing freezing in Splinter Cell - it's been resolved. No need to do anything, just play and enjoy."

[Original] Publisher Ubisoft is investigating an issue with the just-released Xbox 360 version of Splinter Cell: Conviction that sees the game lock up in single-player. Read more »

Splinter Cell: Conviction puts series protagonist Sam Fisher in a vengeance-fueled quest to find his daughter's killer, while helping his old handler track down some missing super-weapons. While the story picks up where Double Agent left off, the gameplay is entirely new, focusing on speed and lethality.

New mechanics like Mark and Execute allow Sam to move through the environment faster than ever before, dispatching enemies with brutal efficiency. Thus enters the unfortunate duality of Conviction--you feel like an ultimate badass, which makes the game too easy. Read more »

Ubisoft continues to release Splinter Cell: Conviction trailers in batches of three, now revealing some of the techniques players can employ in the co-op multiplayer.

Splinter Cell: Conviction is slated to hit Xbox 360 on April 13 in North America, while the PC edition is delayed until April 27 for reasons unrelated to its controversial DRM. Read more »

Apparently convinced that good things come in threes, Ubisoft has released a third trio of Splinter Cell: Conviction trailers showing more of sneaky Sam Fisher's tactical tricks.

Splinter Cell: Conviction is out for Xbox 360 on April 13, with the DRM-tastic PC edition arriving a little later around April 27. A short demo is available now on Xbox 360. Read more »