Man, Ubisoft are great at delaying things. Just a few days ago they announced that Sam Fisher’s next outing is delayed until next year (Ubisoft say the game’s doing great so I’m personally blaming Michael Ironside) and even just a couple of days ago said that the next installment of Brothers in Arms is being held off for a month until the end of September.

As if to maintain a consistent record of delaying things, Ubisoft have said that Tom Clancy’s HAWX will now be held off until next year as well. There, there, Dave.

Reports have surfaced of Ubisoft simply announcing that the game was held off until the January-March quarter of 2009, with some online retailers reflecting the announcement with changed release dates: Gamestop’s changed the release date to January the 6th and Best Buy have shifted it to the 20th of the same month. There’s been no reason given for the delay so we can assume that since its E3 appearance Tom Clancy’s HAWX has quite simply broken itself and Ubisoft have had to make the whole game again, or something as ridiculous as that to warrant a delay of at least 5 months.

Of course, Ubisoft might simply be wanting to space out the potential for moneymaking. Towards the end of the year the publisher is already releasing Far Cry 2, Brothers in Arms, HAWX’s sister game EndWar, Shaun White Snowboarding and Prince of Persia. That’s five games in the space of five months and each of these will be huge sellers and potential chart-toppers.

If too many games (let’s say seven by throwing in a couple of delayed games) are released in a short space of time they can be lost among one another and gamers who might have picked up more than one or two of them could be short-changed (literally) if they all come out at once. By the time they’ve got the cash again to buy the game they’d wanted previously, their attention may have been diverted elsewhere and Ubisoft will lose a sale.

Alternatively, if release dates are stretched out a little and Ubisoft LAWX (I’m sorry) their games into a well-spaced release schedule where the games are released at least a couple of weeks apart, the potential for profit can only go up. With five games already lined up for Christmas time the publisher would do well to take such a course of action, which would probably explain away the delay of HAWX and Splinter Cell: Conviction. It’s pretty cunning. Like a FAWX.

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