"Conviction" was officially announced on May 23, 2007 when Ubisoft released a trailer for the game. The game was due for release on November 16, 2007. However, the game missed its initial launch date, and on May 19, 2008, it was reported that "Splinter Cell: Conviction" was "officially on hold" and that the game had been taken "back to the drawing board". Ubisoft announced that the game had been pushed back to the 2009–10 fiscal year. At E3 2009, the developers confirmed that the "new" "Conviction" had been in development since early 2008, commenting that "the gameplay has evolved a lot" and "the visual direction is simply much better". The game's release date was pushed back several times. On March 18, 2010, the demo was released for Xbox 360. Ubisoft wanted to make the fifth game more accessible. so "Conviction" was designed around the new core elements "Mark and Execute" and "Last Known Position", while stealth elements present in the previous games were omitted, such as the ability to whistle, lock picking, hiding bodies, etc. "Conviction" uses a cover system and adds simple interrogation sequences to the series.