Splinter Cell fans have long been begging for a return of Ubisoft’s iconic stealth series, and a new report indicates that they almost got one. For years, Splinter Cell was one of Ubisoft’s biggest flagships, with hits like Chaos Theory contributing to the company’s overall popularity. Since 2013’s Blacklist, however, the series has lain dormant, although an upcoming remake of the first game might finally kick things into gear again.
A new Bloomberg report from Jason Schreier reveals that Ubisoft was working on a new Splinter Cell game in 2017, led by developers who joined the company after leaving Telltale Games. Over the course of development, the team was pressured to shift Splinter Cell into a live-service approach. By the time the project came to fruition, the planned Splinter Cell game had disappeared, making way for the short-lived FPS xDefiant.
Canceling Splinter Cell Made Dispatch Possible
Interestingly, there’s a silver lining to the disappointing fate of Splinter Cell. After this frustrating experience, the team that had been working on the game quit to found their own company, where they started working on a new narrative game. COVID-19 and some other work got in the way, but eventually, that initiative saw the light of day as the 2025 superhero adventure Dispatch.
The Bloomberg article is mostly focused on how Dispatch came to be, so details about the canceled Splinter Cell game are sadly lacking. Even so, confirmation that it existed at all is a big update. Prior to the report, there was never any official word on what the ex-Telltale employees had been developing at Ubisoft, and the roots of xDefiant were likewise unclear. The game contains some connections to Splinter Cell, but it also ties into other Tom Clancy games and even franchises like Assassin’s Creed, significantly muddying the waters.
Splinter Cell’s Untimely End Is A Disappointing Revelation
A promising project meeting a live-service end is an unfortunately familiar story, as the gaming industry spent much of the past decade going all in on a perceived live-service gold rush. Anyone with sense could tell you that the market could never support all these ventures, but sense can be hard to find among megacorp executives.
In this case, the whole affair led to the creation of a talented new studio, so it wasn’t all a loss. Dispatch has proven to be a huge hit, quickly garnering a large player base and earning an “Overwhelmingly Positive” review consensus on Steam. All the same, it’s a shame that the team’s Splinter Cell game never came to fruition.
- Released
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November 18, 2002
- ESRB
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t
- Developer(s)
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Ubisoft Montreal
- Engine
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Unreal Engine 2