Ubisoft seems to be weathering the down economy pretty well, with solid financial results, no layoffs, but studio acquisitions instead. Its Red Storm studio, known for the Rainbow Six franchise, is also on the move, literally, as on May 1, 2009 it will be moving into a new 35,000 square feet office in Cary, North Carolina for the next 10 years.

Ubisoft announced it will be expanding its studio operations to Vancouver, BC, Canada through the acquisition of video game developer Action Pants Inc. The studio currently employs more than 110 video game developers, and is working on a new Wii exclusive sports title, as well as unannounced PS3/X360 titles.

Ubisoft's Q3 2008-09 financial results are better than expected, up 13% compared to last year, mainly due to Far Cry 2 (2.9 million units) and Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party (1.5 mill.) and its casual lineup, which offset the slower take-off for Prince of Persia (2.2 mill. units). While previously listed as Q1 2009, I Am Alive has been bumped into Ubisoft's 2009-2010 lineup, which means at the earliest April 2009, joined by Assassin's Creed 2, Splinter Cell Conviction and a new Ghost Recon title.

Ubisoft's latest release schedule is a treasure trove of information as it reveals target dates for various titles, but also blows the lid on the often rumored, but never confirmed, PC editions for Tom Clancy's EndWar, as well as its survival game I Am Alive.

Ubisoft has acquired Brazilian independent developer Southlogic Studios, which will be merged into Ubisoft Sao Paulo.

Square Enix announced that it has entered into an exclusive distribution agreement with Ubisoft Japan under which Square Enix is entitled to distribute Ubisoft games exclusively in Japan starting April 2009.

Ubisoft announced that it has acquired from Activision Blizzard the assets and all of the personnel of esteemed Malmö, Sweden-based studio Massive Entertainment, as well as the real-time strategy brand, World In Conflict.

Last year Ubisoft announced it was developing a third-person action game based on the Heroes TV series, focusing on the entire cast, and not re-tell or bridge the gap between the two seasons, but instead offer its own insight. The game hasn't really been heard of since and today Ubisoft revealed that it is no longer making a Heroes game, thus the project has been canceled and the rights have been reverted back to series owner NBC.

Ubisoft released its sales for the fiscal half-year which ended Sept. 30, 2008, revealing sales are up 37% compared to last year, mainly driven by Brothers in Arms Hell's Highway, SoulCalibur IV (Europe) and its casual games lineup. Ubisoft expects further sales increase with its holiday lineup including Far Cry 2, Snowboarding, Prince of Persia, EndWar, Rayman and several more. Unfortunately, there is also some bad news, as Related Designs' strategy game, Anno 1404, and an unannounced title, were pushed until next fiscal year (anywhere from Apr. 1, 2009 to Mar. 31, 2010).

Former Ubisoft and Gameloft developers who worked on titles such as Far Cry 2, Prince of Persia, Ghost Recon, Brothers in Arms decided to take matters into their own hands and form a new studio, trapdoor. Located in downtown Montreal, the studio is currently working on a multiplatform (X360/PS3/PC) original IP, but no further details are available at this point.

In a recent interview EndWar lead AI programmer Vinh-Dieu Lam revealed that Ubisoft is thinking about merging all of its Tom Clancy titles (now that it has acquired the full license) into one overarching super game, where missions generated in a Ghost Recon game affect the world map in EndWar for instance, or a mission in EndWar will need you to attack Paris but before you can it may generate a Splinter Cell or Ghost Recon mission. While there is no time frame for the project, or whether it will even come this console generation, Lam indicated it's the direction Ubisoft wants to go in.

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Check out the following new screens and trailers from Ubisoft's Tokyo Game Show 2008 lineup:

• 'Far Cry 2' (PS3/X360/PC) - 19 New Screens
• 'Prince of Persia Prodigy' (ALL) - New Screens & Trailer
• 'Tom Clancy's EndWar' (ALL) - 20 New Screens
• 'Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X.' (ALL) - 9 New Screens

Check out the following new screens and trailers from Ubisoft's Games Convention 2008 lineup:

• 'Far Cry 2' (PS3/X360/PC) - 18 New Screens
• 'Naruto: The Broken Bond' (X360) - New Screens
• 'Prince of Persia: The Fallen King' (NDS) - New Screens
• 'Prince of Persia Prodigy' (ALL) - New Screens & Trailer
• 'Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party' (NDS/Wii) - New Screens
• 'Shaun White Snowboarding' (PS3/X360/PC) - 17 New Screens
• 'Shaun White Snowboarding Road Trip' (Wii) - New Screens & Trailer
• 'Tom Clancy's EndWar' (ALL) - 7 New Screens & Trailer
• 'Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X.' (ALL) - New Screens

Check out the following new screens and trailers from Ubisoft's Games Convention 2008 lineup:

• 'Babysitting Party' (Wii) - 4 New Screens
• 'Combat of Giants: Dinosaurs' (NDS) - 16 New Screens & Trailer
• 'Imagine Babysitters' (NDS) - 5 New Screens
• 'Imagine Fashion Designer New York' (NDS) - 5 New Screens
• 'Imagine Fashion Party' (Wii) Announced - Facts & Features
• 'Imagine Movie Star' (NDS) Announced - Facts & Features
• 'Imagine Teacher' (NDS) - 5 New Screens
• 'Imagine Wedding Designer' (NDS) Announced - Facts & Features
• 'My Stop Smoking Coach with Allen Carr' (NDS) - 6 New Screens
• 'Petz Monkeyz House' (Wii) - 8 New Screens
• 'Petz Rescue Endangered Paradise' (NDS) - 3 New Screens
• 'Petz Rescue Ocean Patrol' (NDS) - 3 New Screens
• 'Petz Rescue Wildlife Vet' (NDS/Wii) - 2 New Screens
• 'Petz Sports: Dog Playground' (Wii) Announced - Screens & Trailer

Ubisoft announced the opening of a new business office, not a development studio, in Warsaw, to help increase Ubisoft's market share in Poland and Eastern Europe.

Ubisoft has filed a lawsuit against Optical Experts Manufacturing, the North Carolina-based company it had used to makes copies of Assassin's Creed on PC. OEM failed to follow its own security measures and allowed an employee to take home a copy of the game, who then uploaded it on the internet six weeks before its official release. Ubisoft claims the leak was downloaded 700,000 times, costing the publisher millions of dollars, and is suing for breach of contract and negligence, asking for $10 million each.

Ubisoft's Q1 2008 financial result reveals that sales are up 25.8% (€169 million compared to last year's €134 million) driven mainly by Assassin’s Creed, Haze, Rainbow Six Vegas 2 as well as its Games For Everyone brand (Petz, Imagine and MyCoach series) which saw a boost of 20% compared to last year. Also revealed was the Splinter Cell delay, which we reported on earlier today.

Check out the following new screens and trailers from Ubisoft's E3 2008 lineup:

• Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway (ALL) - 4 New Screens & Trailer
• Far Cry 2 (PS3/X360/PC) - 11 New Screens & Trailer
• Hell's Kitchen: The Video Game (NDS/Wii/PC) - Screens
• 'Naruto: The Broken Bond' (X360) Announced- Facts, Features, Screens & Trailer
• Prince of Persia Prodigy' [ALL] - 2 New Screens & Trailer
• Prince of Persia: The Fallen King (NDS) - 6 New Screens
• Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party (NDS/Wii) - Screens & Artwork
• Shaun White Snowboarding (ALL) - 15 New Screens
• Tom Clancy's EndWar (ALL) - 10 New Screens & Trailer
• Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. (PS3/X360/PC) - 10 New Screens & Trailer

GErman based 3D Game Engine developer Trinigy announced a license deal with Ubisoft studio Blue Byte, giving The Settlers developer access to Trinigy’s latest Vision Engine 7.0 which has been unveiled quite recently.

Ubisoft announced the acquisition of Montreal-based visual effects studio Hybride Technologies, known for having worked on 300, Frank Miller’s Sin City and the Spy Kids series.

Exent Technologies has secured an agreement to increase the library of Ubisoft titles available for Exent-powered Games-On-Demand services in North America, adding franchises such as Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six, Prince of Persia, Far Cry, Rayman and Heroes of Might and Magic.

Martin, Diana and Java pursue ceaselessly the most revolting monsters dripping with Slime. These very special agents are commissioned by M.O.M, the director of CENTRE, to lead these paranormal investigations throughout the world.

French publisher Ubisoft keeps on opening new studios all over the world, and announced it is opening shop in Brazil to start yet another new game studio, Ubisoft São Paulo, which will initially focus on creating NDS titles aimed at girls between the age of 8 and 14. Ubisoft further plans to open up additional studios in Rio de Janeiro and Florianópolis.

Earlier this week we revealed From Software's latest installment in the Tenchu franchise. At a conference in Japan it was disclosed that Ubisoft will publish Tenchu 4, which will see the return of the two main characters, Rikimaru et Ayame, tasked with investigating the disappearance of Gouda Matsunoshin's daughter Kiku. More infiltration, more environmental interaction, combos, and of course use of the Wiimore for aiming at the screen.