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• Ubisoft launches UBIShop online store (no relation to Bishop

  

   Not satisfied with offering its games through a variety of retail options worldwide, Ubisoft today launched UBIShop (pronounced "you-be-shop"), a direct-to-consumer avenue that offers boxed and digital copies of the French publisher's games. (The online store would appear to be unaffiliated with closely-named ubishops.ca, the web home of Bishop's University in Quebec, Canada.)

  To jump-start the store's launch, Ubisoft is offering the "Elite Echelon bundle," a collection of the original Splinter Cell, Chaos Theory, Double Agent and Conviction, for $76 on PC, along with a whole mess of PC titles as part of a buy one, get one free (old game) deal. Currently, however, the prices for some of Ubi's newer PC titles are well above comparable retailer prices.

  In the press announcement for UBIShop, the publisher described the destination as "an online meeting point for Ubisoft fans around the world." After our initial visit, we're not convinced there's much more here than another, potentially more expensive place to purchase Ubisoft games. That said, Beyond Good & Evil is free with purchase of several games -- not a bad freebie, Ubi.