Confirmed: Splinter Cell Conviction Delayed to April 2009

As far back as a few months ago, rumors had been floating around everywhere that Splinter Cell: Conviction was headed towards a total redesign by Ubisoft that would push the release date of the game well into 2009, especially since the game wasn’t shown at E3.

Well, those rumblings have been confirmed, as Ubisoft announced today that Splinter Cell: Conviction will be delayed until the companies next fiscal year.  Ubisoft’s fiscal year starts in April, so that means the game would release April 2009 at the very earliest.

So what was the reason for this delay?  Was it because Splinter Cell: Conviction’s developers couldn’t bear the fact that Assassin’s Creed had better crowd gameplay than Conviction was set to be having, as some people have suggested?  Or was it because Sam Fischer is on an elongated mission and hasn’t had time to film the cutscenes yet?

[via Joystiq]