It was a lucrative year for French video game publisher and developer Ubisoft. The company saw a profitable sales growth of 36 percent, amounting to around €928 million (US$ 1.46 billion). It owed its success to the successful releases during the previous year coming from established franchises, original IP releases, and even its casual line of games. For more details, check out our full article.

Ubisoft struck gold with their acquisition of the Tom Clancy name for life. How much did it cost them, and how big a gold mine will it bring them? Talks are also in the air about their venture into the world of MMOs with the said name. To find out more, read up over at the full article.

Ubisoft's Yves Guillemot just mentioned that the video game tie-in to the hit series "Lost" is still on schedule for 2007. The game, which is almost forgotten for lack of screenshots or any solid news that tell people of its existence, is not even included in Ubisoft UK's updated release schedule. Guillemot has reported though that it's still in development in Ubisoft's Montreal studio and will be released before 2007 ends.

GamesRadar is supposing that given Guillemot's statement, the Lost video game may not be released in 2007 since it's way too late for a game that doesn't even have any screenshots or reports of gameplay mechanics. That, or Ubisoft may have resorted to creating a simple Lost trivia game for handhelds due for release this Christmas.

Armed with the confidence that comes with releasing their new "Games for Everyone" strategy, Ubisoft's Yves Guillemot is now ready to take on the competition. Everything looks rosy for the makers of Splinter Cell as their fiscal 2006-2007 earnings showed an increase of 24 percent in sales.

They also have good ammo to use in their quest to conquer the consoles: Assassin's Creed, Tom Clancy's End Wars and Haze. Of course, they can still rely on the success of their hit franchises: Splinter Cell, Rayman, and Brothers-in-Arms. Add those up to a steady supply of casual games for the quirky Nintendo and DS consoles and you've got success written all other it. Ubisoft's new stance to make games dedicated for a specific audience in mind is definitely showing up in their video games.

Guillemot said, “We are at the beginning of a new market – there are new customers coming into our market now and they just don’t care about franchises our industry used to make. They want games that are relevant to them.”

He also expressed that the company can face off against established companies like EA and THQ when it comes to licensed games. Currently, Ubisoft has acquired big name licenses, such as game adaptations of Beowulf, Surf's Up, Naruto and Lost.