This is purely speculative but after Ubisoft's financial report they released yesterday and comments from Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot, could the delay of Splinter Cell: Conviction suggest that the publishing giant are reconsidering their stance with the now Xbox 360 exclusive game?

CEO Yves Guillemot has mentioned the development team in Montreal requested more time to polish the game, but with the hard downturn and lower than expected projections for the coming quarters of the financial year, is there more to the delay than meets the eye, especially considering the ever increasing development costs for the hugely delayed game.

Ubisoft's first quarter sales were down 50.3% which is not to be scoffed at, citing the current market climate as one cause or in their own words 'Poorer-than-anticipated market conditions'. With a number of Japanese publishers such as Square Enix, Capcom and Namco branching out to cross platforms with their products and with leading publishers such as Activision and EA enjoying huge success with their cross platform titles, could platform exclusivity be under scrutiny behind closed doors at Ubisoft?

With Ubisoft experiencing a general slowdown in sales across key platforms, it does make sense that their biggest franchises reach as large an audience as possible. Assassin's Creed 2 is multi-platform, as have been their other key game series such as Rainbow Six Vegas and Ghost Recon, so with Splinter Cell Conviction being exclusive to Xbox 360 as perhaps a timed exclusive it looks like there's more hope for PS3 owning gamers who have enjoyed the previous games on the Playstation consoles.

EDIT: It seems some reports are in denial and have short memories. Whilst it's true that Splinter Cell Conviction remains Xbox 360 exclusive for the time being, how long this exclusivity lasts is anyone's guess. It's highly natural for PR persons and CEOs to talk up 'exclusivity' arrangements during the period for a product, but the bottom line is anything can change pre and post launch. There have been numerous games which were once console specific exclusives which then further down the line made the hop over to other platforms, so it's not entirely out of the question regardless of who says what at this juncture.

The main point to remember and a basis for the speculation in the first place is that in these uncertain economic climes, changes are indeed possible and if making a once exclusive title available to more formats is a way of maximizing revenue for a game then it's more likely than not. This is a case of never say never.

Date: 2009-07-28

Posted by: Robert Cram

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