As Ubisoft lowered its end of year financial forecasts, and in amongst a host of other announcements in order to get investors pumped for the year to come, a few big name franchises from the past were casually dropped into the conversation, follow-ups to which are said to be releasing in the next twelve months - titles that were sure to perk up the ears of those who have a vested financial interest in the publisher.

“The 2010-11 fiscal year will see a greater number of franchise releases than fiscal year 2009-10,” a Ubisoft press release read, “including Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Conviction, a new game in the Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon series, Prince of Persia The Forgotten Sands, Driver, Raving Rabbids 4 and a new episode of Assassin’s Creed, which will be the first in the series to have an online multiplayer mode.”

Splinter Cell, Prince of Persia and Assassin’s Creed, we knew about. We had some inkling about a Ghost Recon game, but the ailing Driver series was thought to be dead and buried at this point, while a follow-up to the well-liked and generally well-performing Rabbids series was probably a given.

According to comments made by CEO of Ubisoft France, Geoffroy Sardin, if you ask him what the next big videogame brand is going to be, “a big blockbuster of 2010,” the answer? “[The] next Ghost Recon.”

According to Sardin, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is the game to beat, and the development team on the next Ghost Recon game is taking steps to surpass 2009’s industry beater by taking it to the next level:

“The technological advances and competition are pushing us to do better,” said Sardin. “When you look at the excellent Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 in terms of content, multi and buzz, it needs to be level, if not much better. We therefore take the time to refine that title. But we have seen [the next Ghost Recon], played [it] and it’s just crazy.”

Look forward to a renewed focus on fewer triple-AAA quality titles from Ubisoft for the next twelve months on Xbox 360 an PS3, with less of a focus on Wii and DS than we’ve seen in the past.