Ubi boss on Splinter Cell exclusive

Ubisoft top dog Yves Guillemot has revealed why the French firm decided to develop the next Splinter Cell title exclusively for Xbox 360 - and it's all thanks to family history.

The announcement, one of many made in a rather impressive display of content from Microsoft at X06, will see the currently multi-platform adventures of Sam Fisher (latest SC title Double Agent is on PC, PS2, X360, Xbox and Wii) fly solo on the next-gen system, though a separate PC version wouldn't surprise us.

"Splinter Cell was created on the first Xbox, so we thought it was important to come back for one volume with Microsoft to create a very good quality title focused on using the full power of the system," Guillemot told our sister site GamesIndustry.biz during the swanky post-X06 party in Barcelona the other night.

"And especially for next year when the big guns will be out, it's very important to have a game that will use 360 to the full, because you will need that to fight against all the other games that will be there. For us it's a good way to win the next-gen battle. We love Xbox 360 because it's easy to develop on and that's why we want to put great quality products on it."

It's certainly quite a coup for 360. And also quite a hole in Microsoft's wallet, we'd imagine. No date for the new Splinter Cell yet, but Double Agent is out on October 20th.