Ubisoft has announced the disappointing news that the Xbox 360 exclusive Splinter Cell: Conviction, and the WiiMotion Plus only game Red Steel 2, have both been delayed until 2010. From the sounds of it, both highly anticipated titles should be shipped into stores sometime between January and March of 2010.

When E3 was underway, the impression was that both Red Steel 2 and Conviction would be coming out later this year, and presumably during the holiday season. According to the CEO of Ubisoft Yves Guillemot, the company felt the need to delay both titles was because they wanted to make sure they were polished by the time gamers got their hands on them.

“The changes on Splinter Cell and Red Steel – it’s just a question of polish,” said Guillemot. “The team was asking that they couldn’t be with the level of quality on all the maps and all the game for the end of the year, so they had asked for more time to be able to come with a better product, for both of those games.”

Although some are speculating that Ubisoft is doing something similar that 2K did when they pushed back Bioshock 2. According to 2K, their reason to delay BioShock 2 was because of financial underestimation of how many would sell.

Either way, there isn’t a question; the more time developers have to creating a game — the better chance it has to become good.

Seeing Conviction being delayed is somewhat of a surprise. When the game was first revealed back at E3 in June, it definitely looked like it was ready to see a holiday release date.

Red Steel 2 is a different story, however. While I saw major potential in the sequel, I didn’t think it would have been ready in time for the Christmas season, or at least be met with great reviews. Seeing it get pushed back until next year is a good thing for Wii owners. The first Red Steel had buttloads of promise, but when it was released during the launch of the Wii — it was a huge disappointment. It seems like Ubisoft learned their lesson.

Source for quote: joystiq.