The long rumored sequel to Michel Ancel’s last generation opus Beyond Good & Evil is real, and we’ve got the uninformative, supposedly real-time trailer to prove it. This announcement from Ubidays 08 is particularly surprising given the poor sales of the original, which was marked down to below 50% of its original MSRP just two months after it was released.

Ubisoft doesn’t have a release date to go along with the new teaser, and fans eager to experience the continuing adventures of Jade and Pey’j may yet have a long wait ahead of them. Ancel was reportedly crushed when Nintendo’s Pokémon Snap beat him to the photography-based video game punch in 1999, four years before Beyond Good & Evil would finally be completed.

The criminally overlooked original plays like a combination of The Legend of Zelda, Metal Gear Solid, and the aforementioned Pokémon Snap. It is, naturally, all kinds of awesome, thanks in part to its excellent and varied musical score that matches the schizophrenic assortment of gameplay elements perfectly. Thankfully, Christophe Heral will be returning to score Beyond Good & Evil 2 as well.

Beyond Good & Evil 2 Screens! More Importantly: TRAILER! [NeoGAF]

If Ubisoft has their way, Tom Clancy will be a more recognizable name in video games than Mario. Tom Clancy’s HAWX, the latest addition to Mr. Clancy’s ever-expanding video game empire and the long-fabled descendant of Tom Clancy’s Air Combat, puts players in one of 50 planes as they take to the sky for some next-generation dogfights on the PS3, Xbox 360, and PC. HAWX is scheduled to release this fall.

Confusing itself with Metal Gear Solid 4, HAWX is set in 2012 in a not-too-distant-future where private military companies provide most of the troops and equipment on the battlefield. As such, each of HAWX’s aircraft comes equipped with an Enhanced Reality System (ERS), which is a fancy way of saying Ubisoft has been nice enough to build a GUI for their game.

Tom Clancy’s HAWX will feature a 16-player, online multiplayer mode where players can compete for experience and in-game cash used to unlock new weapons. The game will also ship with a champaign that up to four players can play through cooperatively.

Tom Clancy’s HAWK Flies into Danger Zone [IGN]

Some publishers are foolish enough to reveal actual news on April Fool’s Day. Case in point: Ubisoft has announced their plans to bring over 40 titles to Valve’s digital distribution service starting today.

Far Cry and Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell are both available now, and you can save 10% on either if you order before April 8. You can also pre-purchase Assassin’s Creed before it arrives on the PC on April 9.

Additional Ubisoft games, including entries in the Tom Clancy and Heroes of Might & Magic series, will be available in the coming weeks. Ultimately, Ubisoft’s Steam lineup will represent the single largest library of titles from any developer or publisher.

Soon, we’ll never need to deal with CD keys again.

Ubisoft Expands Game Catalog on Steam [Steam News via Evil Avatar]