New Splinter Cell sequel in development at Ubisoft, says report

A mainline console and PC title for Ubisoft’s Splinter Cell series is in development, reports Video Games Chronicle. The news comes right as a demoralized community of Tom Clancy fans practically downvoted Ubisoft’s free-to-play Ghost Recon into a delay.

Video Games Chronicle sourced its report to two unnamed persons with knowledge of Ubisoft’s plans. Ubisoft Montreal has been tasked with the Splinter cell game’s development. They developed the original of seven of the games, as well as three others, over the past 20 years. Ubisoft Toronto handled the most recent, 2013’s Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Blacklist Available for PlayStation 3, Wii U (Windows PC), and Xbox 360.

There is “a small chance” this Splinter Cell game could be announced next year, VGC said. Polygon reached out to Ubisoft representatives for comments.

Ubisoft had announced its intentions to launch Ubisoft in early October Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon FrontlineThe 100-player game is free to play and Ubisoft has decided to delay the Oct. 14 closed technical testing. Ubisoft’s statement gave no reason for the delay, but the publisher had to have noticed the extreme disappointment expressed in community spaces like the Ghost Recon subreddit and the announcement video’s YouTube comments.

Reactions to free-to-play shooters Tom Clancy’s The Division HeartlandThe Division’s follow-up, The Division: XDefiantThe mashups of the three Tom Clancy Series (including Splinter Cell), also caused complaints about Ubisoft’s inability to listen to fan demand and Ubisoft not being responsive. A comment to investors in May that the company was prioritizing development on free-to-play adaptations of the company’s highest profile series didn’t help Ubisoft’s image with fans, either.

Ghost Recon’s most recent game, 2019’s Breakpoint, was very poorly received by the Tom Clancy’s community, which felt it wasn’t differentiated enough from the more action-/less tactics-oriented The 2nd DivisionIt was launched seven months before. The case of Breakpoint And FrontlineUbisoft’s decision to stop developing single-player stealth action games with linear narratives has been criticized by fans.

The announcement in September 2020 that a Splinter Cell game was on the way — but for virtual reality systems — was likewise panned by Splinter Cell loyalists. Yves Guillemot (Ubisoft Chief Executive) told IGN, before E3 2019, that Ubisoft had been putting off reviving Splinter Cell until they came up with an innovative sequel.

“When you create a [sequel] you have to make sure you will come with something that will be different enough from what you did before,” Guillemot told IGN. “Last time we did a Splinter Cell, we had lots of pressure from all the fans saying, ‘Don’t change it, don’t do this, don’t do that.’” Guillemot went on to say “at one point you will see something, but I can’t say more than that.”

Since 2013’s Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: BlacklistSam Fisher is now a guest star in Ubisoft’s mobile strategy titles, but Sam Fisher was the main character of the series. Elite Squad Ghost Recon WildlandsAnd Rainbow Six Siege