Tom Clancy's EndWar, Ubisoft's New... Strateg...

Tom Clancy's EndWar, Ubisoft's New... Strategy Game!

Speculation has been on the rise about a new Tom Clancy game, ever since Ubisoft began their viral marketing campaign with multiple news posts on the official websites of various Tom Clancy games, and opened an intriguing rev64.com website, which redirects to a more cryptic address (which, by the way, looks nothing like it did a couple of weeks ago). The password, in case you're wondering, is "s9p1z6". Just don't ask where I got if from: I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you. Oh, and if you don't feel like listening to what that lady says after you enter, here's the transcript:

"In 2014 the world finally realizes peace. The United States and a unified Europe aligned to launch the first ever global interlocking anti-ballistic missile system of its kind. 8.2 billion watch as the end of strategic nuclear war is affirmed. Missile sylos are emptied, economies are stabilized. The realization of ideal human coexistence seems to have been attained. But it is not to last. A mere 12 month later, news breaks of overstated recoverable oil reserves. The result is an increase in the price of natural resources that quadruples their value and cripples the industrialized world. Amid this planetary energy crisis, the Russian federation experiences a revitalization of wealth, reinvesting its global petrol earnings into technological and military advancement. Over the next three years, the United States and Europe secretly develop plans and counter-measures against a resurgent Russia. Planet Earth once again finds itself posessing opposing super-powers. The era that would come to be known as the militarization of space begins, when the US reveals plans to launch its first military space station into permanent orbit. Two years later, with international dissension and opposing military tension mounting, the module launch site falls victim to terrorist attack. This begins a series of reactions from which mankind may never recover. A conflict of final magnitude."

Sounds like a promising World War III scenario for a futuristic Tom Clancy's game, and as it turns out now, that's exactly what it is. Only this time you won't be playing it from a first-person or over-the-shoulder perspective, because the new project announced by Ubisoft will be a strategy game! They call it Tom Clancy's EndWar - the first in a new brand, and for the time being it's only announced for release on next-generation consoles, in fiscal year 2007 / 2008 (that would be 2008 in "real-time").

Currently in development at Ubisoft Shanghai, Tom Clancy's EndWar has been built from the ground up as a revolutionary war strategy game solely for next-generation consoles (right, no PC, like Halo Wars supposedly). The game promises to push the envelope of technology, showcasing artificial intelligence, graphics, physics and animations that were not possible prior to the launch of the new hardware systems.

So now we're waiting for Ubi to back all that up with some jaw-dropping media, because right now their words are all we have to go by.

(N.B. Archive text, links removed)