If you're wondering just what's going down in the upcoming Paris Games Developer Conference this June 23 and 24, then we've got a news update regarding the ever-so-important keynote: LittleBigPlanet creators Mark Healey and Alex Evans will be delivering it. They'll be talking about quite a lot of things (besides their own game). Check out all the details in the full article and see what this means to you.

If you think you've gotten an eyeful from last year's Ubidays event sponsored by French video game company Ubisoft, then make sure to set your calendars this May 28 and 29 when the Ubidays event makes a comeback. Ubidays 2008 will be held in the heart of Paris' world-famous Louvre museum and will feature some of the biggest titles that the company has to offer gamers in the coming year. For more details, check out the full article!

The Rabbids are coming and they are as cute and maniacal as ever. The second installment to the party franchise, Rayman Raving Rabbids 2, will be released this coming November 16 on Nintendo platforms Wii and DS. The development is being handled by Ubisoft's Paris studio.

Now, here are three new gameplay videos for Rabbids 2 that should make fans more excited about the game. For those who are yet to understand the joy of playing with bunnies, this is your chance to get more familiar with Rayman Raving Rabbids 2.

Ubisoft had said before that it is not interested in bringing the franchise to other platforms so Nintendo fans, these are all yours. Enjoy!



See the other videos after the jump!

It's always a nice surprise when a classification board indirectly lets the cat out of the bag when it comes to upcoming games, and it's no exception here as the Classification Board of the Australian Government recently rated World Class Baseball as an impending title for the Virtual Console.

For the uninitiated, World Class Baseball is a game about America's favorite pastime (read: baseball, duh) and it lets you take on the other countries' teams in the world stage.

Featuring a brutal single-player mode, the Pennant Mode, players must face off against rather funnily-named teams (Tokyo Ninjas, Paris Fries, Bangkok Buddhas, etc.), until you come toe-to-toe with the game's All-Star team, the Turbo Tigers.

Certainly a very good opportunity to get back into the ball game, don't you think? And with a versus exhibition game mode fully available, you can go head-to-head with a friend and see who gets to eat the other's chalk dust.

As always, we'll be here to update you on the developments regarding the Wii's channel of non-stop retro loving, so keep it locked right here!

 

Adding to a starry lineup of game publishers and developers planning to arrive at the big Leipzig bash, Atari and Ubisoft will be tagging along with a good share of games to present at Games Convention (GC) 2007 exhibition. 360-Gamer reports that Paris-based Ubisoft will feature a line of promising games, while Atari will sport a few contenders of its own.

Ubisoft's list includes heavy-hitters Far Cry 2, Haze, and Assassin's Creed, while Atari queues Alone in the Dark 5, The Witcher, Eternal Sonata, and Ace Combat 6 for guests visiting the stand. Also, Atari Germany will have Race 07, a well-known WWTC race PC simulator that may be compared to other racers in various platforms. The lists for both companies are as follows:

Atari

• Alone In The Dark (Eden Studios) - PC, PS3, 360, Wii, PSP, DS, PS2
• The Witcher (CD Projekt) - PC, also on mobile
• Eternal Sonata (tri-Crescendo) - 360
• Ace Combat 6 (Project Aces) - 360
• Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 (unknown) - Wii, PS2
• Naruto: Ultimate Ninja 2 (CyberConnect2) - PS2
• Asterix at the Olympic Games (Atari) - PC, Wii, PS2, DS
• My Horse & Me (W!Games) - PC, Wii
• Race 07 (Atari Germany) - PC

Ubisoft

• Far Cry 2 (Ubisoft Montreal) - PC
• EndWar (Ubisoft Shanghai) - PS3, 360
• Haze (Free Radical Design) - PC, PS3, 360
• Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 (Ubisoft Paris) - Wii, DS
• The Settlers Rise of an Empire (Blue Byte Studios) - PC
• Brothers in Arms Hell's Highway (Gearbox Software) - PC, PS3, 360
• Splinter Cell Conviction (Ubisoft Montreal) - PC, 360
• Assassin's Creed (Ubisoft Montreal) - PC, PS3, 360

On the strength of next-generation titles such as Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 and Rainbow Six Vegas for the Microsoft Xbox 360 and complemented with the success of Red Steel and Rayman Raving Rabbids for the Nintendo Wii, Paris-based publisher Ubisoft announced that their sales figures shot up 24.4 percent ending the last fiscal year. This translates into a rise of earnings totaling US$ 917.1 million with a gross profit of US$ 123.6 million.

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot says "the sharp improvement in our operating profitability in fiscal 2006-07 reflects the diversity and strong performance of our games portfolio. Ubisoft has laid the foundation for starting 2007-2008 in excellent conditions and is well-positioned to continue to gain market share and further increase its profitability in a high-growth sector."

In addition to the titles mentioned earlier, Ubisoft also makes money with updates and downloadable contents in the Xbox 360's Xbox Live online gaming platform. The cost of creating add-ons is much cheaper than creating stand-alone games, enabling the company to capitalize on the established base of the stand-alone title by selling players downloadable content.

In addition, Ubisoft is expected to set the bar even higher with the release of anticipated shooter Haze for the Sony PlayStation 3 later this year. Ports to the PC platform are also selling relatively well. We'll fill you in on more about Ubisoft when news is forthcoming.

There are some indications that the sequel to Red Steel may very well have an online functionality because the Red Steel site has an ad posted that's calling for applicants for an online programmer position. The responsibility is listed as "to develop the online part of a game engine for a Wii project ... "

The development of this project will take place in Paris, France, where other Ubisoft titles such as GRAW and the original Red Steel were made.

The chances are pretty fat that the hypothesis of online functionality is spot on. If we go back to November of last year, it was also an ad for a vacant position that blew the cover off a Red Steel sequel.

Better get ready to optimize that internet connection for your Wii, kids. You don't want the lag to spoil your katana-swingin' and machine gun-firin' moves when you use them on live targets.

A lengthy report by Reuters covered a speech session with Electronic Arts' international publishing head Gerhard Florin, where he was quoted as saying, "I believe the biggest fight will be in Europe." Electronic Arts sees an "entertainment race" as a prime factor for determining if the battle over consoles, computers, and mobile phones ends in victory or tragedy.

And Florin believes the greatest chapters of the battle will be written in Europe. "Whoever wins the hardware war in Europe, most likely will be the overall winner," Florin said, pointing out the current war waged by Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo over the region.

But more importantly, Florin expounded the realities of advancing technology and delivering entertainment value over at the Reuters Technology, Media, and Telecoms summit held in Paris recently. While he noted that mobile and cell phone users may not be interested in superior technology and graphics, he also mentioned that the industry was now turning its head to the quality of story telling and delivering emotion in games.

Up against the big name publishers in the same region, Ubisoft claimed the top three position as the most successful publisher in Europe, following their financial report that placed a 25% hike up their game sales revenue.

Not satisfied with their success, Ubisoft is now aiming to stay within the top three spots this fiscal year, even up against the likes of Electronic Arts and THQ.

"Already this year we stand as the number two publisher in Europe. We are well positioned to maintain our UK position in the top three publishers, " said Ubisoft UK's managing director Rob Cooper.

Ubisoft's recently announced Tom Clancy's EndWar and the still highly-anticipated Assassin's Creed are both sure bets for the company to keep ahead of the game.

Of course, Ubisoft isn't just targeting the next-generation platforms and their audience. They also claimed to have maintained a good balance of investment and care with the next-gen and mainstream titles. Many of those titles will soon be revealed at the Ubidays in Paris, come May 22 and 23.

Cooper claimed that the company's confidence in their performance for this year is deeply rooted in the sheer investments poured into their studios and their development capability over the past four years. "This is now really coming into fruition and is culminating in the creation of top quality product and ground-breaking new IPs," concluded Cooper.

We just can't get enough of them survival horror titles, can we? Well, Playlogic Entertainment has just announced Hydravision's survival horror title Obscure II, with plans to release them for the PC, PS2, and Wii.

The sequel will take players to the events two years after the original. The survivors have moved on with their lives, from high school to college. All is well until a strange plant is discovered and things run crazy once again. In Obscure II, players will be able to choose one character to control and another to be controlled by the AI. There are six playable characters and each has a different ability.

Playlogic's Stefan Layer, VP of Marketing and Sales, said, "I am extremely pleased that we added Obscure II to our line up. The first instalment was well received by both press and public. Hydravision has pushed the envelope with Obscure II and I am confident that the game will do even better then its predecessor."

Here's some features for the game:

• Adventure and action in a teen horror movie scenario
• 6 charismatic characters with unique skills Unique co-op mode: second player can join in at any time
• Highly detailed and rich 3D environment
  
• Find clues and solve various riddles and mysteries
  
• Vast variety of weapons and horrifying monsters
  
• Stunning soundtrack performed by the Boston Symphonic Orchestra and the Paris Opera Children’s Choir

Obscure II is slated for release in Q3 for the PC and PS2 versions while the Wii version comes in Q4. Check out the screenshots and we'll keep our eyes peeled for more info.