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As part of its fiscal earnings report for the quarter ending December 2008, Ubisoft has revealed the "sell-in sales" (that's to retailers, not consumers) for a handful of key titles. Far Cry 2, launched in late October, shipped 2.9 million, while Raving Rabbids TV Party has tallied up 1.5 million since its mid-November unveiling.

Unfortunately, a certain wisecracking acrobat didn't seem to meet expectations. According to the report, the above figures helped to "offset the impact of a slower take-off" for Prince of Persia and its 2.2 million shipped units for December. Yesterday's NPD stats put PoP's US sales at around 483K. Ubisoft has also confirmed a fiscal 2009 release window for Assassin's Creed 2, Splinter Cell Conviction and a new Ghost Recon.

If you've been denying yourself the opportunity to play Balance Board games from a hilarious seated position for budgetary reasons, today's Amazon "15 Days, 15 Deals" special will appeal to you. The retailer has discounted a few Wii games including Raving Rabbids TV Party. Also among the reduced-price games: Wario Land: Shake It! for $40. It may not be playable with one's bum, but it certainly shares juvenile humor with Ubisoft's silly minigame collection.

Decent price drops are also available for the Perfect Shot and Ben 10 Alien Force. And, uh, Game Party 2 and Block Party, just in case you need something to be angry about.

The biggest competition for a third-party developer on Wii is, obviously, Nintendo. But, that doesn't mean it's hopeless. Ubisoft is just one of the third-party developers that have found success on the console. How? Through strategic and careful planning.

"We saw that at the end of this year, there were not so many Nintendo products, and we thought there was a window of opportunity," said Ubisoft CFO Alain Martinez at the UBS Global Media Conference this week. "I believe to date, Nintendo is about 30-35 percent market share. So that means if you are aggressive, and if you come up with the right products, you can gain market share there." Because of this, the company expects Shaun White Snowboarding and Raving Rabbids TV Party to sell 1 million and 1.5 million units each, respectively.

It's not like Nintendo is making it so that third parties need to wait for the stars and planets to align, however. "Nintendo is surely not making it impossible for people to make good games [on its systems]," Martinez added. "They've been helping us make games. So it's up to us."

Of course, this isn't to say that Ubisoft has had nothing but luck with the Wii. They've tried to pile some stinkers on us in the past. But, monkey see, monkey do. The more successful third-party developers are on Wii, the more it attracts others to reach for their own slice of that pie.

Just as we all found out last week, today marks the release of the fourth episode of Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People. Oh, and we're also getting a bunch of other games. This week, seriously, has a lot of games. Head on past the break for the full list.

Also, our apologies. There likely won't be a VC Monday Madness video today, but we'll try to get it up as soon as we can. Sorry!

Reader Joshua is one lucky dude. He managed to score a copy of Raving Rabbids TV Party from his local GameStop. Being that they specialize in games, we're surprised to hear about them violating the street date for this title. Sure, it's only a week early, but while Joshua is sitting at home, enjoying his game, we're writing about him enjoying his game. Oh, how we wish we were him!

If you're looking to score a copy early, you might want to hit up your local GameStop, as Joshua suggests. They might do the same thing for you. And if you're looking for some video from the game, hit up Joshua's site here.

One of the best parts of the Raving Rabbids TV Party concept is that it can be stretched to make fun of almost anything. If there has ever been a TV show on a subject, TV Party can parody it. Thus "MISS FIT," a Rabbid fitness show starring a bearded Rabbid called Chuckie Morris, uses references to Chuck Norris's late night Total Gym infomercials as a cover for a parody of Wii Fit. The most hilarious bit about MISS FIT to us is that it's really not all that different from Wii Fit!

Other new videos at IGN feature the return of the rhythm and rail shooting games from previous Rabbids, as well as a sort of maze adventure in which players control the balls inside a lottery machine.

A new series of Rayman Raving Rabbids toys is being allowed to run wild in European stores (by "run wild" we mean "sit motionless inside packages"). To coincide with the release of Raving Rabbids TV Party, Ubisoft announced plans to release figures of smiling and screaming Rabbids, along with critters dreed in Assassin's Creed and Splinter Cell garb. A Prince of Persia figure is visible in the preview art but not mentioned in the press release.

Coolest of all, Ubisoft will sell a box including the four Rabbids mentioned along with a blank Rabbid designed for DIY decoration. This Rabbid is available on its own on ubiart.com right now! Dea Ubisoft: American gamers have space on their meticulously organized, dusted shelves as well!

The latest teaser video for Raving Rabbids TV Party is short, but entertaining. A mini-trailer, perhaps, for minigames! It's also delightfully timely! More like Quantum of Lol-ace, amirite? We're not sure what it is about these little guys. We get the routine already -- they're loud and stupid and pull faces -- but for some reason, we're nowhere near tired of them yet.

After the break, a trailer from last week that eschews movie parody in favor of actual gameplay, as well as the "happy friends in front of couch" footage we've come to expect from our Wii trailers. Somehow, TV Party interprets "wrestling" as "whacking each other with plungers."

Slowly, games are starting to trickle out that allow the use of the Balance Board, for activities like skiing, tilting a maze (and infuriating yourself), controlling a robot, playing the drums, and even moving puzzle pieces. Oh, and riding a moose down a mountain. The potential for non-fitness-related fun is increasing.

Have you taken part in any non-Wii Fit-related Wii wobbling? What did you think of the experience? Do you look forward to any future Board-compatible games?

IGN has uploaded a pair of new videos showing off minigames for the upcoming Raving Rabbids TV Party. The video above focuses on the minigame Monster Tractors, which, you guessed it, has you racing around the farm on tractors. Of course, with this being a Raving Rabbids game, it's not your normal tractor race. These are some souped-up tractors of epic proportions racing about in a highly comical fashion. Man, we love those crazy little rabbids.

After you check out the video above, head on past the break to see video from the Mega Balls minigame. It's, uh ... weird.

While we can't talk about what we played at today's Nintendo fall media summit in San Francisco (embargoes lift Monday), we were able to snap plenty of pictures from the event, including The Conduit, Dead Rising, Call of Duty: World at War and Animal Crossing. More galleries after the break.

Ubisoft has released beaucoup d'images as part of the media overflow we call Leipzig Games Convention 2008. Below and after the break, check out new galleries of screenshots for Raving Rabbids TV Party, Prince of Persia, EndWar, HAWX, Far Cry 2 and more. It's just like Ubidays, only with no Beyond Good & Evil in sight. Oh, mon Dieu!

Raving Rabbids TV Party is all about making fun of TV programming -- and what is more televised than the Olympics? It's natural, then, that Ubisoft would release some silly trailers showing their new mascot characters running rampant through Olympic events in Beijing. Also there are probably some Olympic-style minigames in the actual game.

The latest trailer, above, combines the usual yelling-based Rabbid humor with some classic Bugs Bunny. We've embedded the last Olympic-style clip, from last week, after the break. It's also funny, yes, but it also makes us feel genuinely bad for the poor, stupid Rabbid for the first time, because it looks profoundly painful.

Ubisoft rather likes money, and therefore is enamored by the best-selling Balance Board. Perhaps this is why the range of Balance Board-compatible minigames in Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party has been stretched, to the point where half of the 75 games will feature Balance Board support -- previously, that figure was one-third. We guess Ubisoft really wants to see you playing with your butt more, amirite lol?!

"Hilarity" aside, offering greater Balance Board compatibility makes perfect sense. There's a gap in the market for Balance Board games that aren't Wii Fit right now (only We Ski is currently on store shelves), and Balance Board owners are probably looking for something else to play, now they've perfected their Sun Salutation.


[Via Go Nintendo]

I am happy to report that Raving Rabbids TV Party maintains the same balance of well-designed, clever motion-based minigames and puerile humor that have made the first two Rabbids games a not-so-guilty pleasure. The addition of the Balance Board just means that the team at Ubisoft has a new tool in their ongoing effort to make you look ridiculous. Which I certainly did while sitting on the floor pretending to sled in the middle of the E3 show floor.