It’s not yet official, but you know, it’s unofficially official.
Although we don’t know who exactly it is that’s working on this new Splinter Cell, we do know that Ubisoft has a lot of making up to do in the Tom Clancy lines. Since 2013 we’ve been graced with Clancy series’ releases such as Ghost Recon, Rainbow Six, The Division, Endwar, H.A.W.X., XDefiant, and Elite Squad…but nothing for Splinter Cell.
Splinter Cell is the one series that fans have been asking for and Splinter Cell is the one series that Ubisoft has not revived after all this time.
However, there is news from two supposed reliable sources with knowledge of Ubisoft’s activities that spoke to VGC and they’ve put it out that there’s a new mainline game in development for Splinter Cell. There hasn’t been an official announcement just yet but we’re very likely to be getting that during the course of next year. There’s obviously no release window or anything of the sort just yet but we’ll keep you updated with that as things progress.
Ubisoft is in dire need of re-establishing their good name in terms of the Clancy series’ topped with the discontentment due to the wave of sexual harassment and discrimination allegations revolving around Ubisoft Singapore (there seems to be way too much of this going on at the moment in the gaming industry?).
During Facebook Connect 2020 there was an announcement that there will be a Splinter Cell coming to Facebooks Oculus VR but it was definitely not received as one would expect; quite frankly it was more of an overwhelming disappointment from the majority. Assassins Creed is also supposedly getting a VR version, which was announced during that same event.
Yves Guillemot – CEO of Ubisoft – said last year that before they were able to even begin thinking about bringing a new Splinter Cell into production it first had to evolve. Prior to this fans were saying that it shouldn’t be changed, it should stay the same; but with that being said, games do need to evolve, they need to have a difference otherwise what is the point of releasing something that you’ve basically already got?
It’s understandable to want games to stick to their original roots though, otherwise, why include it in a series that’s supposed to have a specific (or relative) direction? (*cough-cough* Resident Evil) We obviously don’t want a game to lose its roots where it feels as though it’s being made into too much of a try-hard to be kept “on topic” but it’s very clearly diverted way off (again, *cough-cough* Resident Evil).
“When you create a game, you have to make sure you will come with something that will be different enough from what you did before. The last time we did a Splinter Cell, we had lots of pressure from all the fans actually saying, ‘Don’t change it, don’t do this, don’t do that,’ so some of the teams were more anxious to work on the brand. Now there are some things and some people that are now looking at the brand, taking care of the brand, so at one point you will see something, but I can’t say more than that.” – Yves Guillemot.
Rumor: Ubisoft Greenlit a New Splinter Cell Game? – IGN Daily Fix
For now, that’s all we really know about this new title in development, it’s all still very early stages but it’s definitely a go. I, myself, am very keen for this and I’ll be keeping a close eye on the what’s-what of this upcoming Splinter Cell.