Fans have been asking for a new Splinter Cell game for or some time. Blacklist, the series’ last entry, came out in 2013. The absence is questionable but Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has finally addressed where Sam Fisher has been all this time.
A few weeks after former Ubisoft employee Jade Raymond hinted that a game was in the works, Guillemot talked about a new Splinter Cell game in an interview with IGN. While he stopped short of confirming a new game was happening, he did at least discuss what was taking so long for it to return.
He noted that some of it came from fans that weren’t too fond of the changes with Blacklist, in which series regular Michael Ironside was replaced by a “younger” model.
“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,” he explained. “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.’ So some of the teams were more anxious to work on the brand.”
But there is some good news, as a team is dedicated strictly to that particular license.
“Now there are some things and some people that are now looking at the brand; taking care of the brand. At one point you will see something but I can’t say more than that,” he said.”
Another factor to consider is that Ubisoft worked on more relevant franchises at the time, hence Splinter Cell not being brought back right away.
“Also because of Assassin’s Creed and all the other brands taking off, people wanted to work on those brands more. So we have to follow what they like to do,” he added.
So Splinter Cell hasn’t been forgotten. It may just be a matter of timing at this point – and hopefully, that’ll come with E3 in just a few short weeks.
