Yesterday, we reported the unfortunate news that Splinter Cell Conviction and Red Steel 2 would be pushed out of 2009 and into an ever crowded 2010. But why were these games delayed? According to Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot, it was to “add polish”.

“The changes on Splinter Cell and Red Steel – it’s just a question of polish. The team was asking that they couldn’t be with the level of quality on all the maps and all the game for the end of the year, so they had asked for more time to be able to come with a better product, for both of those games. The quality of the games is there for what you’ve been able to see at E3, but we were not able to have that same quality on the full game of those two products,” Guillemot told investors in a conference call, as transcribed by Joystiq.

However, Guillemot believes that the additional development time will help solidify the two games as among the best to be released in the January to March time-frame.

“Red Steel and Splinter Cell are going to greatly benefit from the additional polishing time we are providing and will clearly be among the leading brands on the Wii and 360 for the March quarter,” Guillemot said.

That answer didn’t necessarily satisfy investors, who pestered the executive on the potential for missing out on the Christmas boon for videogame sales. Guillemot admitted that there could be some impact initially — to the tune of a million units between the two games — but believes that over the lifespan of the two titles, more units will be sold due to the delay.

It’s not likely to be much solace for those of you that were anticipating either of these games, but as Shigeru Miyamoto has said: “A delayed game is eventually good, a bad game is bad forever.”