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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).

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]

This week, the long-awaited remake of Hudson's Military Madness is available on WiiWare in Japan. Do you like ... war? Do you like hexagons? This is for you! Japanese gamers with no interest in playing updated versions of classic games can play a faithfully emulated version of Mega Man 4 instead.

DSi owners have a wide selection of games this week, including Q-Games's Starship Defense/Starship Patrol (now under a third name!), a new G.G. Series game, a Gameloft pet sim, and a dungeon crawler based on Sonic Powered's From the Abyss.

• Rockman 4 (Famicom, 1 player, 500 Wii Points)
• Nectaris (WiiWare, 1-4 players, 1,000 Wii Points)
• Anonymous Notes: From the Abyss (DSiWare, 1 player, 200 DSi Points)
• Uchimakure! Touch Pen Wars (DSiWare, 1 player, 200 DSi Points)
• G.G. Series Assault Buster (DSiWare, 1 player, 200 DSi Points)
• Uso Hakkenki: Kokoro no Naka o Nozo Ichao (DSiWare, 1-2 players, 500 DSi Points)
• Starship Defender (DSiWare, 1 player, 500 DSi Points)
• Wanko to Issho (DSiWare, 1 player, 800 DSi Points)

During an acceptance speech at the Japan Media Arts Festival this past weekend, Shigeru Miyamoto casually referred to unannounced Nintendo hardware and at least one new Wii project he's working on, which uses the MotionPlus peripheral. Of course, since Miyamoto wasn't making any formal announcements, that's all he said on those fronts, according to Andriasang's summary of a 4Gamer report.

Miyamoto was onstage accepting a Special Achievement Prize when he revealed that, in addition to Zelda, he's working on an unspecified number of other projects that use MotionPlus. While unconfirmed, the "Special Achievement" might have been awarded for Miyamoto's work in the field of vague announcements.

[Via Andriasang]

We apologize for any and all spelling or grammatical errors this post may contain. We're not at our usual razor-sharp level of literary acuity this morning, due to the fact that we stayed up all night to analyze the image you see above. According to Siliconera, that silhouetted figure up there is the first new fifth-generation Pokémon, and we need to know what it is. We'll find out during the February 21 episode of Pokémon Sunday -- but we both know that we can't be expected to wait that long.

So, let's just start riffing. It looks bipedal, right? That could indicate that it's a fighting-type -- then again, look at its plumage. Kinda looks like the trappings of a fire-type, doesn't it? Then again, it could just as easily be a new evolution of Lucario! Or -- wait, you know what it actually resembles? Our shame.

And here we thought the well of Lego Star Wars material had dried up. Perhaps we've underestimated TT Games, which has revealed that it's constructing a new armed and fully operational entry in the series: Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars. Destined for an Autumn 2010 release on the Xbox 360, PS3, PSP, Nintendo DS and Wii, the game will focus on the events of the Cartoon Network animated series, Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

Expect "brand new battle modes, giving players unique, head-to-head combat" and an expanded level editor, allowing potential Padawans and Seperatists the chance to construct their own "customized bases and in-game battlefields." You'll also be able to employ new tactics throughout the game, such as "Squad command, Lightsaber slicing, Lightsaber jumps, long distance Jedi attacks and Grapple Tie-Ups."

Wait, lightsaber slicing? Does that mean the obvious, or the radical ability to slice through lightsabers?

There's a wide selection of downloads available on Wii and DSi this week -- including stuff that people might have heard of before and/or be interested in! Two days after its reveal, the new Blaster Master game is available on WiiWare, along with Hudson's Princess Tomato, a somewhat forgotten NES oddity. And DSiWare has the iPhone hit Fieldrunners and a new puzzle game by Intelligent Systems. Read about all ten (!) new games after the break.

Excitebike World Rally, having just been released in Japan this week, is now available in Europe, ready to delight players with online, tilt-controlled classic motorcycle racing. Final Fight 3 is also out in Europe this week, with classic dude-punching. We're starting to wonder -- is the worldwide Virtual Console release of Final Fight 3 some kind of abstract promotion for Super Street Fighter IV, which features characters and locales that originated in the Final Fight series? Or is it the Wii's equivalent of Final Fight Double Impact?

• Final Fight 3 (Virtual Console: SNES, 1-2 players, 800 Wii Points)
• "Aha! I Found It!" Hidden Object Game (WiiWare, 1-4 players, 500 Wii Points)
• Excitebike World Challenge (WiiWare, 1-4 players, 1,000 Wii Points)
• Snakenoid (DSiWare, 1 player, 500 DSi Points)

The debut of the Dragon Quest VI remake for DS proves that a Dragon Quest game doesn't have to be entirely new to sell like crazy in Japan -- just new enough. In its first week at retail, January 25–31, the new version of the classic Super Famicom RPG sold 906,458 copies, according to Media Create, making it by far the top-selling game of the week.

A pair of other newly-released RPGs also did quite well: the PS3 version of tri-Ace's shooty-RPG End of Eternity (we call it "Resonance of Fate") landed in second place on the weekly software chart with 118,088 units sold (the Xbox version charted respectably at #8, selling 27,048 units) and Ar Tonelico 3 hit #4 with 81,633 copies sold. Even the Japanese release of MAG managed to make it into the top ten!

See the complete weekly top ten sales list after the break.

Your teenage daughter and/or son aren't kidding around when they say you just don't get it. You really don't. You're not a teenager. You don't know everything like they do. And one of the things they know is that video games are the bomb. The kids still say that, right?

Anyway, according to a recent Pew Internet & American Life Project study (via MSNBC), 80 percent of teenagers between the ages of 12 and 17 own a gaming console and that around 51 percent of those in the same age group own a portable gaming device. "While younger and older teens are equally likely to have a game console, boys are more likely than girls to have one," the study reads, pointing out that 89 percent of boys have a gaming console compared to 70 percent of girls.

The study itself focuses mostly on the internet and how the young are connecting (hint: they like laptops and -- wait, MySpace?), but it's a good read if you're looking to get in touch with the youngsters.

[Via Edge]

Prope and publisher Bandai Namco sent out the first screens and footage (after the break) of the new Wii and DS versions of the once-Windows Mobile exclusive Ivy the Kiwi?, thus forcing us to fill another post with question marks? Okay, we didn't need that one.

The presentation on the console versions of the game is identical to the original, with the unusual sepia-tone color scheme and hand-drawn backgrounds. Both new versions double the number of levels, bringing the game up to a total of 100. And both new versions have multiplayer: local download play on DS and splitscreen on Wii. And, of course, the DS has a map screen. Why not?

The prospect of racing against the Bonanza Bros. as a forklift-driving Ryo Hazuki likely has many Sega fans on the precipice of purchasing Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing. However, those of us whose common sense has yet to be short-circuited by fan service would prefer to try out the game in order to determine whether the actual racing is worthwhile. And according to a Digital Spy interview with producer Steve Lycett, we may get to do that.

"We're currently looking at downloadable demos for 360 and PS3, and a DS demo via the Nintendo Channel to boot," Lycett said.

He also responded positively to the idea of Sumo Digital developing a Shenmue sequel -- you know, because having a game with a Ryo Hazuki character model in it is basically halfway there. "I'm sure if Sega asked, we'd love to take it on," Lycett said. "It'd scare me to death to take on something so epic, but well, I'd like to think we could do it justice. I think if you cut us in half at this point, you'd find Sega written through the middle of us!"

Yep, it says it all right there in the headline, folks. Gameloft swiftly took $122 million from consumers in 2009, roughly equating to 15 million digital copies of DSiWare Oregon Trail. Alright, alright, the digital distribution-based publishers probably sold some of its other games too, we guess -- mobile games (in general) represented a whopping 94 percent of the company's sales in 2009. And despite our voracious habit for mobile games here at Joystiq, North Americans were second place in terms of worldwide sales at 32 percent, with Europeans leading at 39 percent and the rest of the world trailing at 27 percent. Good luck catching up, rest of the world!

And yes, even amidst the global economic recession, Gameloft predicted "further growth in 2010 in terms of revenue and profitability." The publisher also pointed out its strong position in the long term, saying it will "benefit from the rapid emergence of digitally distributed video games on mobile phones, tablets, consoles, and from major technological innovations." You catch that tablet reference in there? Yeah, we did too. Hey, it's 2010, right? The future. We're in it.

The official GDC 2010 website has revealed that Metroid director Yoshio Sakamoto will be leading a lecture at this year's conference. The lecture is titled "From Metroid to Tomodachi Collection to WarioWare: Different Approaches for Different Audiences." The session will focus on Sakamoto's "thought processes and techniques on game designs that have allowed him to find market acceptance for his expansive portfolio of titles." In other words, it will delve into the success of Sakamoto's many wildly different games.

Assuming the lecture has a Q&A session, we also imagine it will focus on journalists needling Sakamoto about Metroid: Other M. Curiously, the lecture listing also fails to mention the inevitable follow-up event: Watch fanboy journalists and developers rush Sakamoto to get their DSes autographed.

[Via Gamasutra]