The oppressive Ubisoft PC game DRM has been lifted! Well, mostly. The DRM copyright protection is still there, but it isn’t as annoying and restrictive as usual. Previously, games like Assassins Creed II and Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Conviction required players to maintain a constant internet connection if they wanted to actually play, because the DRM would be continually checking to make sure you didn’t abruptly decide to play an illegal version of the game you already showed you owned. Not anymore. But Ubisoft has patched both games to remove that requirement…

Sam Fisher is a hardened type that won’t hesitate to snap some guy’s neck if Third Echelon business calls for it. I’ll bet even he would smile a little at the prospect of picking up Xbox 360′sSplinter Cell: Conviction for only $19.99.

Today Ubisoft announced the results of its first 2010-2011 financial quarter. Overall the company earned €160 million ($200 million) in its first quarter. Ubisoft saw a 93% increase in revenue compared to its first quarter in 2009. This is partly due to the success of Splinter Cell Conviction which sold 1.9 million units. Older games such as Assassin’s Creed 2, Just Dance and AVATAR also maintained decent sales throughout the quarter.

It has been a very disappointing month for videogame sales overall. Analysts are reporting game sales have fallen 26% compared to this time last year. The decline is attributed to the timing of Easter in 2010 and a decrease in handheld console sales. When compared to handheld sales in April 2009, handheld sales make up 61% of the overall revenue decline last month.

I recently cashed in some Reward Zone gift certificates at Best Buy and, after swiping my card for the essentially free purchase, I was handed a black, knit Tom Clancey’s Splinter Cell: Conviction skull cap.

Maybe it was the good natured 3-year-old in my cart, maybe it was my winning personality or maybe it was just my Best Buy Reward Zone card. OK, it was most likely the latter. Looking at my receipt, right after my Reward Zone Card ID number is a line labeled “RZ Bonus – Reward Zone Bonus Offer” for free ninety-nine (aka $0.00).

A publicity stunt to promote Xbox 360 game Splinter Cell Conviction in New Zealand resulted in a police response, several frightened pub patrons and stern warnings for the marketing agency responsible.

Some 20 pubgoers were alarmed when an actor dressed as game hero Sam Fisher began brandishing a plastic gun outside Degree, an establishment in Auckland’s Viaduct Basin.

Someone shouted, “He’s got a gun,” and people began diving under tables. A spokesman for Monaco Corporation, the company hired to promote the game, told the Herald it had another marketing company set up the event and didn’t know a gun would be involved. Senior Sergeant Ben Offner told the Herald the fake plastic gun could have passed for a real weapon until officers inspected it. Offner cautioned anyone planning a similar promotion to think twice.

Heads were turning at Ubisoft’s CES display and it wasn’t just because of the demo for the upcoming sequel Splinter Cell Conviction.

Running the demo was Ubisoft Frag Doll Brooke “Brookelyn” Hattabaugh, living out a dream of actually getting paid to play video games. The Frag Dolls are an all-female group of pro gamers that travel the country encouraging more women to compete. They also help promote Ubisoft’s games.

A game as eagerly awaited as Splinter Cell Conviction might not really require a gorgeous pro gamer to get you to stop at the booth but Ubisoft doesn’t leave things to chance.

Splinter Cell: Conviction was supposed to get two novels. Luckily it did especially after the average the book by the same name. Splinter Cell: Endgame is that second book. Here’s how it stands up.

Preempting the release of the fifth console game in the franchise, the first of two Splinter Cell books are intended to tide over fans until the next game is released. The question is whether or not the first book, Splinter Cell: Conviction, puts fans of the franchise at ease by demonstrating that something is getting done with the upcoming game by the same name.

Splinter Cell was a franchise that had a lot going against it. It was in a genre that had to compete with James Bond games, Metal Gear games and multiple knock off attempts at being either without committing copyright infringement. At its start, it just seemed like its saving grace was that it was a Tom Clancy game.

As we’ve learned time and time again, Clancy has a bit of a Midas touch with all things espionage, counter-terrorism or military-based. He makes gold with these genres. Soon the fifth installment of the Splinter Cell franchise will be released, Splinter Cell: Conviction in 2010 for Xbox 360 and Windows. To tide over the eagerly awaiting fans, earlier this month a novel version of Conviction was released. This is the fifth novel to be released for the franchise. However, that’s not all that’s happening.