New gameplay and plot details for the recently announced new entry in Ubisoft's Prince of Persia series were unveiled in the latest issue of French magazine Joypad.

The game is said to create a more fantasy-like game and to bring a poetic vision to the series over the previous Sands of Time trilogy, with which the new title shares no direct connection. The title's cel-shaded visual styling and revamped gameplay scheme were adjusted according to this presentational revision.

"The previous trilogy mixed the Arabian Nights in with historical Persia," said creative director Jean-Christophe Guyot in a Eurogamer translation. "We decided we'd prefer to return to the tales of the Thousand and One Nights for something more colourful."

Guyot added that the game is "Zelda-esque, old school, with very contrasting levels," set against the plot of a cursed land that must be healed by defeating boss guardians. Much like Okami, defeating the bosses will transform the world in... Read more

Publisher Ubisoft today announced that it has opened a new internal development studio in Kiev, Ukraine, marking the company's third Eastern Europe studio.

The new Kiev studio will collaborate directly with Ubisoft's Bucharest, Romania studio on the PC version of Tom Clancy's HAWX (PC, PS3, X360).

"Having seen the potential demonstrated by the Sofia studio's first projects, it was only natural for us to pursue our expansion in [Eastern Europe] and attract a new pool of highly-skilled talents to the group," said Ubisoft worldwide studios director Christine Burgess-Quemard.

Following a 36% year-over-year sales increase in its 2007 fiscal year, Ubisoft announced that it would expand its worldwide workforce by over 900 workers in FY2008. The company plans to expand operations Singapore, India, and China, in addition to currently established development houses.

The next entry in the Prince of Persia franchise will arrive on PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Nintendo DS this holiday season, publisher Ubisoft has revealed.

According to the company, the title "is poised to rejuvenate the action-adventure genre in addition to introducing a brand-new illustrative art style."

It is being developed at Ubisoft Montreal, which was responsible for Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (PC, PS2, Xbox, GCN, GBA) as well as the more recent Assassin's Creed (PC, PS3, X360, NDS).

Though series creator Jordan Mechner recently filed a trademark for "Prince of Persia Prodigy," no specific title was listed in today's announcement.

Ubisoft had previously mentioned the existence of a new Prince of Persia game in its financial documents, though nothing beyond a vague release timeframe was provided at that time.

Publisher Ubisoft plans to expand its workforce by over 900 employees by the end of March of next year, Next-Gen reports.

Executives at the company said in a quarterly conference call today that its workforce would be expanded considerably in Singapore, India, and China, in addition to currently established development houses.

"Five hundred will go to the new studios, but there will also be 400 coming into the established studios," said CEO Yves Guillemot.

The company noted that as of March 31, Ubisoft employed about 3,600 employees among its 18 studios in 13 different countries.

Ubisoft Montreal's Assassin's Creed (PC, PS3, X360) spearheaded a 36% boost in 2008 sales over last year, the company announced today.

Ubisoft's full-year sales for its 2007-2008 fiscal year totaled EUR 928M, or roughly $1.45B at current exchange rates, a 36.4% increase over last year's figure of EUR 680M / $1.02B. Fourth quarter sales were up 10%, clocking in at EUR 217M / $340.5M.

The company cited the performance of Ubisoft Montreal's Assassin's Creed for the boost in numbers, which it said sold over six million copies since launch. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2 (PC, PS3, X360) also added to Ubisoft's burgeoning moneypile, recording nearly two million units sold since it hit shelves in March.

Trademork reports that Prince of Persia creator Jordan Mechner has filed a trademark for Prince of Persia Prodigy, suggesting that the new Prince of Persia game due by March 2009 may carry that title.

Though the unnamed Mechner-written Prince of Persia film is currently in pre-production, the details of the trademark application indicate that the phrase only applies to "game software and electronic game programs."

Publisher Ubisoft has remained rather silent about the next Prince of Persia game. No platforms have been confirmed, with the company only noting that the title should arrive by the end of its current fiscal year.

Originally released on the Apple II, the platforming series was eventually reimagined by Ubisoft Montreal through a trilogy of releases for the PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube, with the latter title ported to the Wii and PSP as well.

A downloadable 2D remake of the original game was released via the Xbox 360's Xbox Live Arcade last year.

French publisher and Tom Clancy brand owner Ubisoft announced today that it has entered into an agreement to purchase a development studio in Pune, India from mobile publisher Gameloft. The specific terms of the deal were not revealed.

According to Ubisoft, the studio will now focus on "porting titles to handheld consoles and reinforcing Ubisoft's testing teams."

At present, the studio has 120 employees, though the company hopes to bring that number to 200 across the next 12 months and 500 in the following years. The plans seem to mirror those of Ubisoft's recently opened branch in Chengdu.

"India has a promising future in the video game industry and this is an opportunity for us to establish ourselves in the country," stated Ubisoft executive director Christine Burgess-Quemard.

In an article that offers the game's first media, IGN reports that the previously untitled Ubisoft air combat game, announced last year, is Tom Clancy's HAWX.

HAWX is set during 2012, a time when the world has come to depend on private military companies, with the result being the development of a global conflict.

The game is set to feature over 50 different fighters, a single-player campaign that can be played in co-op mode with 4 people total, and a 16 player Versus mode. Also look for an "Enhanced Reality System," which is described as being similar to an assist system in a racing game; more freedom and control will be available to those who disable it, at the cost of higher difficulty.

Tom Clancy's HAWX is being developed by the Blazing Angels team at Ubisoft Romania, and is set for a fall release on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

This latest April Fools' Day gag comes as a collaborative effort between Konami and Ubisoft, who unveiled a video showcasing the epic crossover of Ubisoft Montreal's Assassin's Creed (PC, PS3, X360) and Kojima Productions' Metal Gear Solid 4 (PS3).

Essentially a clip of Solid Snake lurking about a battlefield wearing the robes of Assassin's Creed lead Altair, the gag reel also unveils new gameplay footage of MGS4 in which Snake battles the Gekko, a bipedal tank.

Metal Gear Solid 4 will hit North American retailers on June 12.

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French publisher Ubisoft has revealed that it is latest publisher to make its PC titles available via Valve's digital distribution platform Steam, with the upcoming PC release of Assassin's Creed: Director's Cut Edition currently available for pre-purchase.

The stealth title Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell and Crytek's non-linear shooter Far Cry mark Ubisoft's initial offerings, with Far Cry priced at $9.95 and Splinter Cell going for $19.95. Both will sell at a 10% discount until April 8.

Over 40 titles will be eventually be available, including Tom Clancy games, the Heroes of Might & Magic series, the IL-2 Sturmovik collection and more, along with upcoming releases such as Far Cry 2. According to Valve, bundles packaging franchise entries together will be available in the coming weeks.

"Ubisoft will be delivering the largest library of titles available from any single publisher or developer to Steam," said Valve business development director Jason Holtman, director of business development at Valve.

"We look forward to working with Steam and continuing to strengthen our commitment to the PC gaming community with innovative products and wider distribution channels, added Ubisoft senior sales director Andy Swanson.

Publisher Ubisoft has revealed that, despite some technical complaints, it sold nearly 2 million copies of the Ubisoft Montreal-developed Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2 (PS3, X360) to retailers since its mid-March release.

According to the company, this marks a "better than expected" performance.

Prompted by the strong sales, Ubisoft has raised its sales target for the 2007-08 fiscal year to 920 million euros (roughly $1.43 billion). Total sales for the fiscal year were previously expected to be around 875 million euros (roughly $1.36 billion).

"2008 is off to be a record year for the videogame market and our games have performed remarkably well in this context," said Ubisoft president and CEO Yves Guillemot.

Following its purchase of the Tom Clancy name for all game-related properties, French publisher Ubisoft has revealed that it will be developing a Tom Clancy-branded massively multiplayer online game.

"We are ready and decide now to go for an MMO on the Clancy name," Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said in a conference call yesterday, according to Gamasutra.

It was not stated if if the MMO will be set within an existing Tom Clancy franchise, popular examples of which include Ghost Recon, Splinter Cell and Rainbow Six, or a new off-shoot.

Guillemot noted that Ubisoft had been considering a Tom Clancy MMO for some time, but had held off as it would have increased the company's annual royalty payments to Clancy. The company expects its purchase of the name to save at least 5 million euros (roughly $7.87M) a year in royalties.

"With the royalties we had, it was another barrier not to create the game, because the return on investment was diminished by that," Guillemot said.

While the CEO estimated that the MMO could cost up to $50 million to develop, he did not disclose specifics on target platforms, a release window, its genre, or the studio that will be working on the title.

Ubisoft has announced an agreement with Tom Clancy to acquire all intellectual property rights to the Tom Clancy name for use in video games and ancillary products like related books, movies, and merchandising.

The acquisition frees Ubisoft from the requirement of royalty payments for use of the Tom Clancy brand, which the company expects will help it save at least five million euros (roughly $7.87M) a year. Ubisoft did not disclose the price of the all-cash acquisition.

"The future of our industry lies in our capacity to create and develop brands that captivate consumers and that present myriad of opportunities for the full spectrum of entertainment, be it video games, books, movies or other media," said Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot.

"Capitalizing on the strong franchises that we’ve built over the past 10 years, we will take the Tom Clancy game brand to the next level of the global entertainment industry," he added.

Tom Clancy originally began working with video games when he co-founded Red Storm Entertainment in 1996, which developed and published the original Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon titles. The studio was later purchased by Ubisoft, and the Tom Clancy sphere of video games has since expanded to over 35 titles and expansions.

Ubisoft developer Phil Therien doubts his company will ever develop another hardcore shooter due to the small size of the market, according to a LiveText interview at Eurogamer.

When asked by a fan whether Ubisoft would consider working on a new tactical shooter in the vein of the original Ghost Recon, the Rainbow Six Vegas 2 designer replied: "I doubt we will ever go back to really hardcore only shooters."

"The market was too narrow for it to be a viable business choice," Therien continued. "We would like to be able to please both sides but compromises have to be made."

Though clearly shooting down the idea of returning to the Rainbow Six series' roots, Therien did leave some hope for development of a game that might please both markets.

"We have some ideas to improve on the situation though--keep in mind however that we want our games to be accessible to as many people as possible, otherwise we just couldn't keep making games."

French video game developer Ubisoft may be the next target of an acquisition offer from mega-publisher Electronic Arts, according to details uncovered by GameCyte.

Earlier this week, Electronic Arts publicly revealed its intent to purchase Grand Theft Auto property holder Take-Two Interactive and launched EATake2.com, a website detailing that effort. Take-Two has since rejected EA's offer of $2 billion, prompting speculation of a hostile takeover.

The very same day that EA registered EATake2.com, EAUbisoft.com was registered as well. Though both registrations do not specifically mention EA, the WhoIs information for each site is identical, suggesting EA is also behind the Ubisoft domain.

An EA buyout of Ubisoft has been rumored ever since EA purchased a 20% stake in Ubisoft back in 2004. Both Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillmeot and EA COO William Gordon have chimed in on the matter in recent times, but EA has yet to take any further action. Meanwhile, Ubisoft has diluted EA's American holdings in the company down to 15.4%.

The strong perfomance of Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed last quarter was believed to have reduced the chances of an acquisition. At the time, the company was valued at $4.3 billion, and it expected to sell more than 5 million copies of Assassin's Creed by March.

It is widely speculated that EA's renewed vigor towards acquisitions is a result of the unexpected merger between Activision and Vivendi Games, which replaced EA as the world's biggest third-party publisher.

Following a series of delays, publisher Ubisoft has announced that Free Radical Design's shooter Haze will be making its way to stores in May as a PlayStation 3 exclusive.

Telling the tale of a drug-enhanced commando facing a moral quandry, the first current-gen effort from TimeSplitters developer Free Radical was originally announced for PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The title is now being touted as a PS3 exclusive after development on the PC and Xbox 360 versions was halted last year.

Ubisoft also released a new trailer for the game, viewable below.

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ZeniMax Media, the parent company of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and Fallout 3 developer Bethesda Softworks, today announced the formation of its first European office, ZeniMax Europe.

The new branch will focus primarily on publishing titles within the European market under the Bethesda Softworks brand. Previous, ZeniMax had partnered with other companies, including Ubisoft and 2K Games, to publish its titles in Europe. However, ZeniMax noted its intent to continue working "with strategic European distribution partners."

"We want to establish direct relationships with retailers and distributors throughout Europe and the UK as we bring exciting titles like Fallout 3 and Rogue Warrior to gamers worldwide," said ZeniMax CEO Robert Altman. "This is an important step for us as we look to expand our presence in markets outside of North America."

Helmed by industry Sean Brennan, ZeniMax Europe is already up and running in its London office. One of its first publishing efforts will be Bethesda's post-apocalyptic action-RPG Fallout 3, which hits North America and Europe in PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 iterations this fall.

Ubisoft has announced that the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2 will hit North American retailers on March 18, with the publisher offering up fancy special editions of the console editions on the same day. The previously confirmed PC version is said to follow shortly thereafter.

Priced at $69.99, the limited edition of the Sin City shooter contains no exclusive gameplay content, instead packing a poker chip key chain and a video disc filled with strategy movies, interviews, and a peek at the upcoming Tom Clancy RTS EndWar.

To commemorate the unveiling of the Limited Edition, Ubisoft sent over a trailer containing new gameplay footage and hints of that elusive, exclusive video content.

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Ubisoft has released a new patch for Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2, updating the first person shooter to version 1.05. If you already have 1.04 installed you can download this patch.

The patch includes five new multiplayer maps ported from the singleplayer campaign, adds two new weapons, and fixes several more bugs. ... Read more

Law firm Greenberg Glusker announced today that Ubisoft Entertainment won a $13.2 million judgment in its copyright and trademark infringement dispute against toymaker MGA Entertainment, owner of the Bratz property.

The company acquired the rights to create and publish video games based on the Bratz license in 2002. A surge in popularity of the Bratz line prompted MGA Entertainment to seek renegotiation of the contract by terminating the license and filing suit against Ubisoft. The publisher counter-sued, alleging breach of contract.

"We are thrilled with the result, and we feel completely vindicated," said Ubisoft's general counsel Cecile Russeil in a statement released today. "We could not have achieved this outcome without attorneys who mastered every aspect of the case, and thoroughly understood our video gaming business."