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The previously Xbox Live-exclusive Ghost Recon: Future Soldier trailer has found its way onto the YouTubes. As expected, it's a lot of CG and absolutely no gameplay -- with a final title screen promising release in "Fall 2010." One item in the teaser, however, did manage to excite us: Invisibility. It looks like every future soldier gets one of those special Harry Potter blankets. Neat!

Head past the break for the teaser.

Ubisoft's current focus to iterate its "major franchises" seems to expose its key brands to franchise fatigue and, with it, dwindling sales -- just look what happened to sales of Guitar Hero and Tony Hawk when Acitivsion implemented a similar strategy. However, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot remains unconcerned about so-called franchise fatigue, as he emphasized today that the publisher's goal is to "increase and come out more often" with games.

Speaking during a financial earnings call for investors, Guillemot expressed his belief that Ubisoft has taken plenty of time to develop the next installments in the Driver, Ghost Recon, Prince of Persia and Splinter Cell franchises -- development time that will ultimately result in more iterations in less time, in turn improving brand visibility and training consumers to expect these franchises more often, and plan their gaming budgets accordingly. He also pointed out that sales of these upcoming titles should boost sales of their franchises' legacy games.

Of course, with that said, Guillemot re-emphasized that quality is still important and that the company has invested (and continues to invest) in building game engines and tools that can be used for the next 10 years. The CEO noted that Ubisoft development teams our given enough time to ensure very high quality work, continuing that Ubisoft "takes those elements into consideration."

Among the handful of Ubiscoops about 2010's releases coming out of today's investor call, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot brought up the tactical Tom Clancy franchise Ghost Recon. Beyond the already revealed platforms for Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, Guillemot detailed the franchise's further ubiquity, saying the next Ghost Recon game will "be on all platforms: 360, PS3, Wii, PSP, [and] DS." He noted that the Wii version of Ghost Recon will "be done by a different team" with a "different approach ... created for that Wii population." Presumably, the game will involve standing on the balance board to approximate a sniper's breathing -- and it'll also be made up entirely of mini-games. Whoa, whoa -- calm down there killer. We're just joshin' ya!

He also confirmed something we've been mentioning for months now: "There will be more competition in the first eight months than in the last four." Get your calculators and spreadsheets out, folks -- early 2010 is gonna be a bruiser like we've never seen before (on our bank accounts, that is).

Speaking in an investor call, following the release of Ubisoft's fiscal third-quarter financial results, company CEO Yves Guillemot made it abundantly clear as to why another Assassin's Creed will unsheathe its stabby things before April 2011. According to Guillemot, Assassin's Creed 2, which launched in November 2009 on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, has shipped 8 million copies. The original Assassin's Creed had sold just as many by June 2009 -- roughly 18 months after its debut.

Although details regarding the new Assassin's Creed -- set to star Ezio and some online friends -- remain slim, Guillemot wasn't mum on milieu: "This time, [Ezio] will strike directly against the templar's order in Rome." Can this Rome be built in a year, just in time for Holiday 2010?

Sure, $679 million may sound like a lot of money (it sure does to us!), but when you're a company CEO reporting that number to investors and it's 2.7 percent lower than last year's equivalent time period ($697 million), it's not quite as impressive. And that's just what Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot had to do earlier today when the company reported its fiscal Q3 (October 1 through December 31) sales for 2009. Given the publisher's French HQ, we're not privy to the period's revenue until later this year.

In discussing plans for the upcoming year, the company cited "at least seven franchise titles" being launched this year, calling out this morning's (finally) officially-announced Ghost Recon: Future Soldier among others, leaving one (presumably unannounced) title unmentioned. The publisher then indicates "at least two new brands (R.U.S.E. has already been announced)" will see the light of day in 2010 -- leaving one unannounced new brand. Getting murkier yet, it appears "at least 5 online games" will be heading to the information superhighway, though only three are mentioned (yep, you guessed it -- that means two have yet to be revealed). With GDC, PAX East, and E3 not too far off (already?!), there's still plenty of 2010 left for announcements.

Ubisoft's latest sales report details the company's proposed fourth quarter fiscal year releases -- the period beginning January 1, 2010 until March 31, 2010. It's pretty much everything we expected, with profits for Ubisoft relying on four key titles, three of which are on the PC platform: Assassin's Creed II: Director's Cut, Red Steel 2, The Settlers 7: Paths to a Kingdom and Silent Hunter 5: Battle for the Atlantic.

However, other notable titles will also release during this window, including Racquet Sports and the upcoming Assassin's Creed 2: Multiplayer on iPhone -- oh, and a bunch of new Imagine games, obviously. Outside of detailing these games, Ubisoft also announced that its popular Anno series is coming to the iPhone. Exact details on the game haven't been revealed, but it's a safe bet that city planning and real-time strategy will somehow be involved. Head past the break for the full list of releases.

Source - Ubisoft Q3 sales report [PDF link]

According to a recent Ubisoft press release, launched alongside its Q3 earnings report, either this year or the next will see the introduction of what may be the company's most profitable property to date -- Imagine Town, an online extension of the popular series of casual DS games. Little is known about the platform so far, though the presser stipulates that it will be "a virtual world" which will be seamlessly folded into "UbiWorld™, the portal dedicated to young girls." (In any other context, that would be an extremely creepy thing to say.)

We realize this news probably means very, very little to you, so allow us to frame it to you in a different way: Imagine Town is going to be the thing that lets Ubisoft afford to make Beyond Good & Evil 2. See, now you're interested.

Or, it'll be a Holiday 2010 present, depending on how heavily you drop those hints and how desirable you find Ghost Recon: Future Soldier's "cutting-edge technology, prototype high-tech weaponry, and state-of-the-art single-player and multiplayer modes." Developed by the GRAW veterans at Ubisoft Paris, Future Soldier promises to "go beyond the core Ghost Recon franchise and deliver a fresh gameplay experience, with an unparalleled level of quality that will excite long-time fans and newcomers alike." Yes, this is definitely from a press release.

A multiplayer beta is scheduled to start in Summer 2010, with invitations tied to another of Ubisoft's freshened franchises, Splinter Cell: Conviction (which is but a stone's throw away from release). The offer is currently extended only to the Xbox 360 version of Conviction -- and aside from Microsoft's system, no platforms have been explicitly mentioned in Future Soldier's announcement. He's from the future, so Facebook is a likely candidate.

Update: According to one of Ubisoft's Twitter accounts, the "same experience, same development team and same release date" will be coming to PlayStation 3. Ubisoft's Kimi Matsuzaki also noted that PC details would come "later."

The news, as presented in EndWar voice-command style:

-- VG247, report, EndWar sequel, halted.

-- Ubisoft, elaborate, "on the backburner."

-- Joystiq, clarify, "on the backburner?"

*END TRANSMISSION*

The first Far Cry may seem a bit ancient if you've never played it before, but Far Cry 2 is still a very viable source for securing your quota of fun. Each are 50 percent off on Steam this weekend -- Far Cry for $5 and Far Cry 2: Fortune's Edition for $10.

If you're wondering what all of the hullabaloo is about, this collection of words should help clear it up for you. Or you could just check out this image in our gallery. If you click through the images fast enough, it's almost like you're playing the game!

Okay, internet, deep breath. In. Out. Good. Now, the news: It turns out that the recently revealed iPhone title, Assassin's Creed II: Multiplayer, is totally, 100 percent NOT the multiplayer Assassin's Creed game that Ubisoft announced last month. While Ubisoft didn't see fit to respond to our (multiple) inquiries, the company informed MTV's Multiplayer that the two different projects are, in fact, two different projects. Specifically, when asked if the iPhone game and the multiplayer project were the same, an Ubisoft representative responded, "Nope."

Of course, that doesn't mean it's not another iPhone game. We'll just have to wait and see.

Word around the campfire is that Splinter Cell: Conviction has a release date. No, for real this time. Those other two times were just to test your resolve. According to IGN, Ubisoft has announced Sam Fisher's latest adventure will hit the Xbox 360 and PC on April 13, 2010. Poking fun at itself, Ubisoft evidently delivered a rock with the new date etched on one side to the site. Get it? The date is set in stone! Oh, those crazy French-Canadians!

If you're asking yourself, "Where's Joystiq's rock?," the answer is simple: Had Ubisoft delivered one to us, we'd use it to break the windows at the Ubisoft Montreal offices for making us wait this long for Badass: The Game. This way is just safer.

We thought that, for a change, we'd give you the facts before we got into the crazy, reactionary speculation. There is a page on Ubisoft's website announcing an odd-looking, top-down multiplayer game for the iPhone called Assassin's Creed II: Multiplayer. In it, you attempt to kill three other players across WiFi before they kill you. Last month, Ubisoft announced a new Assassin's Creed game with a multiplayer mode that would feature Assassin's Creed II star Ezio. It did not note a platform. OK, facts out of the way.

BWAH?! It's not, right? No, they can't be the same thing. At least, we're pretty sure they're not. ... You know what? We're just going to call Ubisoft. Well, it's early on the West Coast yet. We'll email. Don't you worry, dear reader, we're going to get this all sorted out.

[Via Touch Arcade; thanks, Colmiak]

Like, for serious this time! We know the game initially snuck into the App Store, only to evade our attempts to download by vanishing into the night almost as quickly as it came, but now it's back for good. Ubisoft has announced that iPhone and iPod Touch users can now download Assassin's Creed II: Discovery for $9.99 -- around twice the cost of hiring a pack of 15th-century prostitutes to distract some guards for you. Nowadays, you don't even want to know how much that costs. Thanks, inflation!

Download Assassin's Creed II: Discovery - $9.99

First reaction: lolwhut? Of course casual gamerz haven't hurt the hardcore. Hardcore have mad skillz.

Second, more thoughtful reaction: Oh -- Cowen and Company's Doug Creutz was speaking in terms of business. That makes a little more sense. Speaking to Edge, Creutz espoused his belief that "non-traditional" formats like the iPhone and social gaming have not hurt the core gaming market. Rather, said Creutz, "We believe that these newer gaming media represent a distinct and non-competitive market segment from console gaming, which is dominated by the core gamer." He elaborated that while casual titles didn't fare as well in 2009, the sales of core titles were still strong (a reasonable belief).

According to Creutz, the "difficulties" faced by the industry are the result of the "relatively slow uptake" of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, thanks in large part to their high price points. However, now that both the PS3 and 360 have reached mass market prices, the console cycle will "reaccelerate to the benefit of the publishers that are positioned to take advantage."

Creutz sentiments seem to be in line with many of the major game publishers, as both Capcom and EA have expressed dissatisfaction with the Wii market, with a Capcom spokesperson outright declaring, "If you're not Nintendo, it does seem harder to make money on the Wii today compared to the PS3 and the Xbox 360". Meanwhile, Ubisoft has announced that it plans to "refocus" its efforts on the Xbox 360 and PS3 in 2010.