A new report reveals that Ubisoft's Splinter cell franchise was set to get a brand new entry, before the company changed the project to take advantage of the Games as a Service model to create the fateful XDefiant. Fans of Sam Fisher and the Splinter cell series is on a seemingly endless wait for a new game in the franchise, especially with the continued development struggle for the remake.
With the last entry on the main line, Splinter Cell Blacklistlaunched in 2013, fans of the franchise have had to settle for cameos with main character Sam Fisher appearing in games such as Ghost Recon: Wildlands, Rainbow Six Siegeand even get a Netflix animated series. Ubisoft continued to raise questions regarding the franchise at major trade show events, but nothing concrete had really materialized until an announced remake of their own Splinter cell the game was announced back in 2021. While fans continue to wait for news about the remake, it seems they were closer to a new entry in the popular stealth series than they realized.
A new Splinter Cell game has almost happened
The new report comes from industry insider Jason Schreier in an article detailing how it recently hit Dispatch came to be. Speaking to members of AdHoc Studio, co-founder Nick Herman and former Telltale Games developer joined Ubisoft's San Francisco office back in 2017 to work on a then-secret project, which was ultimately slated to be a new entry in Splinter cell franchise. Herman acknowledged his excitement about working on the series, which had largely been left dormant to that point, and felt the team could not only tell a great story, but do something with it that longtime fans would love.
However, the feeling would not last long as, just months later, Ubisoft became very interested in the Games-as-a-Service model, which allows companies to monetize games for months and sometimes years after launch, such as Destiny 2, Fortniteand other online games. While the team began prototyping a narrative GaaS game, Ubisoft seems to have decided to pivot Splinter cell entirely in an attempt to make something competitive for an online shooter that Call of Duty.
Overtime, the work took shape and eventually became XDefiantan online multiplayer shooter that brought together fictional characters from many of Ubisoft's major franchises such as The division, Rainbow Six, Watch_Dogs, Ghost Recon, Far Cry, Assassin's Creed and also the aforementioned Splinter cell. The ill-fated project rocketed to a massive player base in May 2024, becoming the fastest Ubisoft title to hit 1 million unique players, but momentum quickly slowed and xDefiant finally finished development in December of that year.
Unfortunately, the news hasn't been better for it Splinter cell series as the previously announced remake has been largely missing in action. In addition to the long development cycle Splinter cell Remake game director Andy Schmoll left the project. What's alarming is that Schmoll ended up replacing former game director David Grivel, who left the project sometime in 2022. The lack of news from Ubisoft as well as all these staff departures no doubt has many fans worried about the project overall.
Source: Bloomberg
