Patriots is the next refuge of Rainbow 6.

Developed by Ubisoft Montreal with assistance from Ubisoft Toronto and Red Storm, Rainbow 6 Patriots will follow the counterterrorism Team Rainbow squad as it tries to put down a group of American insurgents known as the True Patriots. As players look to suppress the True Patriots’ budding revolution, they will be faced with “tough ethical decisions,” according to Ubisoft.

“Terrorism has evolved and so has Rainbow 6. In Tom Clancy’s Rainbow 6 Patriots, all the team play, tactics, and realism that fans of the series love have been coupled with an exciting new narrative direction,” Ubisoft creative director David Sears said in announcing the title. “This adds an unprecedented level of humanity that will make Tom Clancy’s Rainbow 6 Patriots an extremely tense and immersive experience.”

The game will also include cooperative and competitive multiplayer modes that aim to encourage communication and teamwork.

Square Enix hopes to further its Deus Ex gains with the Missing Link DLC.

Though Square Enix seemed pleased with Deus Ex’s performance, the company’s overall earnings for the first half of its fiscal year were mixed. Revenues continued their slide, with net sales for the April-September period falling 15 percent year-over-year to ¥57.516 billion ($735 million).

Profits, on the other hand, rebounded significantly. Reversing the massive income falloff from the first quarter, Square Enix said six-month profit was up 115 percent to ¥3.704 billion ($47 million). The company attributed these results to Deus Ex, as well as an increased return on Web, smartphone, and social-networking games and services.

Deus Ex wasn’t the only title to have a respectable first half. Square Enix also said that the Obsidian Entertainment-developed Dungeon Siege III shipped 820,000 units through September, having launched on major platforms at the end of June. The Japan-only Dragon Quest 25th Anniversary package also shipped 350,000 units during the period.

In a statement, Square Enix CEO Yoichi Wada said that the company is approaching this current fiscal period as a “rebuilding” year geared toward a proper recovery in the year ending March 31, 2013. One way Square Enix intends to do that is through a wide-scale creation of new properties. In its earnings report, the publisher indicated that it was “creating 10 major IPs.”

Sales of Metal Gear Solid: (Not) Rising.

For the six months ended September 30, Konami’s consumer games business was down 26 percent to ¥17 billion ($218 million), while social and mobile revenues jumped more than 230 percent to ¥16.9 billion ($216 million). Companywide, Konami revenues were up more than 6 percent to ¥123.1 billion ($1.6 billion), while net profits jumped 174 percent to ¥11.5 billion ($147 million).

Konami reported unit sales of its games were down sharply for the first half of the fiscal year. During the April-September period, the publisher sold 7.36 million games, down 34 percent from 10.05 million for the same period the year before. The company’s two biggest franchises were both down, as it sold 2.93 million soccer games and just 340,000 Metal Gear games in the half-year, down from the previous year’s first-half totals of 3.44 million and 1.47 million copies sold, respectively.

As for its social gaming growth, Konami said its social games have cumulatively registered more than 11 million users. In December of 2010, that total was less than 3 million. Some of its biggest titles in that space include Dragon Collection, Sengoku Collection, and Professional Baseball Dream Nine.

Pikachu loomed large at PAX East 2010.

PAX East 2012 will run April 6-8 at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center. As in previous years, passes are available in single-day and three-day varieties. A single-day pass for Friday, Saturday, or Sunday runs $35, with the full convention pass priced at $65.

The post also addressed counterfeit passes following issues during PAX Prime. Potential attendees are warned that any badges bought outside of the official site may not be real, and anyone carrying a nonofficial badge will not be admitted.

Event organizers also apologized for the scheduling of PAX East 2012 over Easter weekend, saying that it was not their first choice, and they are working to make sure it doesn’t happen again in the future.

Over 57 million served.

Microsoft is pushing to add to that tally for the holiday season, with various new hardware bundles. Gears of War 3 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 have their own specialized console bundles this year, and the introduction of next year’s Star Wars Kinect will see the release of a R2-D2-styled console. The Redmond-based company also recently introduced two new holiday console bundles, running $299 with two games, and $399 for two games and a Kinect.

Microsoft’s latest tally puts the Xbox 360 slightly ahead of the PlayStation 3, with Sony reporting lifetime sales through September 30 of 55.5 million units worldwide. Nintendo sits out ahead of both HD system holders with its end-of-September financials pegging the Wii at 89 million units sold worldwide.

Harmonix got its groove back with Dance Central.

Speaking to Bloomberg, Harmonix COO Florian Hunziker said that the studio expects 2011 revenues to come in around $100 million. And though he didn’t offer specific net income figures, Hunziker did tell Bloomberg that 2011 will also be the most profitable for the company in its history.

The turnaround for Harmonix is a dramatic one. The studio, which created the Guitar Hero, Rock Band, and Dance Central franchises, led the rhythm-game craze that peaked in 2008 with industry-wide revenues of about $2 billion. However, that craze proved short-lived, as revenues had dropped to $900 million by 2009, according to Bloomberg, and still further in 2010 and 2011.

Harmonix has reversed its fortunes thanks to the rise of dance-based rhythm games such as Dance Central. That title, which has now sold more than 2.5 million copies, is the second-best-selling game for Microsoft’s motion-based Xbox 360 add-on Kinect, behind Kinect Sports.

Hunziker also told Bloomberg that Dance Central’s paid downloads have been a boon for the company, thanks to a broader pool of music genres that can be adapted for the game. Including Rock Band, Harmonix has sold some 100 million songs as paid DLC since 2006.

Paid DLC has also become more lucrative, now that Harmonix is in less competition with the Activision-owned Guitar Hero franchise. Earlier this year, Activision closed its Guitar Hero division and put the franchise on hiatus.

Hunziker also said that Harmonix does not expect to continue relying on just Dance Central to bolster the company. Bloomberg reports that Harmonix is currently developing new music games that deviate from the Rock Band and Dance Central formulas. Hunziker noted that should these new properties take off, the company expects profits to double again over the next few years.

Some Hollywood insiders think the Assassin’s Creed film is doomed from the start.

New York Magazine entertainment blog Vulturereports that the terms of Ubisoft and Sony’s Assassin’s Creed film deal could spell doom for the adaptation. An unnamed Hollywood agent told Vulture, “The whole Ubisoft/Sony deal is a waste of ink, paper and time. The level of control Sony gave up means, effectively, that Assassin’s Creed will never–and I mean never–get made.”

The deal in question is reported to grant the publisher “unheard of” control over many aspects of the adaptation, including final say on budget, principal cast, script, and release date–control said to be impossible for even Steven Spielberg to land. With Ubisoft’s terms seen as demanding for even a property with a large built-in audience, Warner Bros., Universal, and Dreamworks reportedly ended up passing on the project.

On the surface, having a property’s creator retain control over every aspect of a film adaptation may seem like a good thing. However, an unidentified studio head reportedly feels different, telling the magazine, “The only way to make sure it’s a bad movie is to undervalue what movie studios do.”

Ubisoft previously partnered with Disney for last year’s Prince of Persia film, with a story adapted for the screen by series creator Jordan Mechner. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time was seen as unsuccessful, which Ubisoft reportedly felt was due to its lack of control over the project.

The Halo film met its demise under similar circumstances, according to Vulture. Microsoft required a large chunk of the theatrical gross for the film, and when Peter Jackson and others were brought on board insisting on their own share of the proceeds, Fox and Universal balked. An industry insider said that the Assassin’s Creed deal isn’t identical to the failed Microsoft mega-franchise adaptation, since Ubisoft is footing the bill for a large part of the film’s development.

Share and share alike. But after that, no more sharing.

Later this month–five years and a day after the PS3 launch–Sony will change that policy. In a post on the official PlayStation blog today, Sony Network Entertainment vice president Eric Lempel announced new limitations to such game sharing. After November 18, PS3 owners will be able to download and play their PSN games on a maximum of only two activated systems. Downloaded PSP games will also have the same restrictions for PSP owners.

However, the policy will not be applied retroactively, Lempel said. As a result, all content purchased before November 18 will only be subject to the previous five-system limit. Additionally, Sony plans to establish a website where customers can manage their PSN accounts and deactivate specific devices attached to their account. Currently, systems need to be deactivated through the device itself, or by calling Sony’s consumer services department.

The aforementioned restrictions apply only to game content. Video content purchased through PSN can currently be moved to a single PS3 and up to three PSPs, and those limits will remain in place after November 18.

Lego Universe will come to an end in January.

The Danish building-block company announced today that it will be shuttering the MMOG on January 31, 2012. Lego Universe vice president Jesper Vilstrup addressed the decision to close the game, saying that although it has a healthy user base of 2 million players, the company simply has not been able to set up a satisfactory revenue model for its target user group. Specifically, getting gamers to make the leap from the title’s free-play zone and into content reserved for paying subscribers proved difficult.

Colorado-based Play Well Studios, along with Lego Universe’s marketing division located in Denmark, will be casualties of this closure. A total of 115 positions will be affected.

The Lego Group said it looks forward to future projects in the digital space. Collaborations with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment for future Lego-related titles remain unaffected. WBIE subsidiary TT Games’ Lego Harry Potter: Years 5 – 7 launches next week, and the studio is currently working on Lego City Stories for the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U.

Snowblind shipped Lord of the Rings: War in the North earlier this week.

3D Realms’ president George Broussardreported a round of layoffs at the publisher’s Pacific Northwest operations on Twitter, saying, “‘Tis the season. Warner Brothers Games lays off 60ish across multiple Seattle studios. Good luck, guys.”

Warner Bros.’ Seattle-area shops include Monolith Productions and Snowblind Studios. Snowblind developed The Lord of the Rings: War in the North, with previous titles including Justice League Heroes and Champions of Norrath. Monolith is currently working on Gotham City Imposters, and it counts the first two F.E.A.R. games, the Condemned series, and The Operative: No One Lives Forever among its past efforts.

Broussard has proven sadly accurate when tweeting about the latest layoffs in the game industry. The 3D Realms veteran has been among the first to detail developer downsizings at Sony Online Entertainment, LucasArts, IO Interactive, EA Canada, and Black Box, among others.

[UPDATE]: A WBIE representative confirmed layoffs for GameSpot, saying, “As part of the continual review of our business operations and fluctuating market conditions, we have had to make reductions in our WB Games Seattle workforce.”