Recent years have seen major publishers return to beloved video game franchises that were left dormant for many years such as Activision's Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon series, and Nintendo's Metroid series. These series' returned after many requests from dedicated fans for years, and much has been the case for Ubisoft's Splinter Cell franchise. After years of begging and campaining for a new game in the franchise, it appears Ubisoft might be preparing to return to Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell, as a new game has reportedly been greenlit.
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell debuted on the original Xbox console in 2002 and followed NSA Black Ops agent Sam Fisher (voiced by Michael Ironside) as players guided him through a series of levels built around stealth, inspired by the Metal Gear Solid and Thief series'. The series was a major success for Ubisoft, receiving ports to PlayStation 2, PC, and GameCube, and a sequel in 2004 titled Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow. The game would later go on to inspire a series, with multiple titles releasing until 2013's Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist, which failed to meet sales expectations for Ubisoft, causing the publisher to put the Splinter Cell franchise on hold.
Since placing the series on indefinite hiatus, fans have criticized Ubisoft for continuing to use series protagonist Sam Fisher in mobile spin-offs such as Tom Clancy's Elite Squad and guest appearances in games such as Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Seige. In 2020, Ubisoft even announced that a Splinter Cell animated series is in production at Neflix, however the publisher was still hesitant to announce any sort of new game or sequel. Now, over eight years after the release of Splinter Cell: Blacklist, notable Call of Duty and Battlefield leaker Tom Henderson has reported via Video Games Chronicle that Ubisoft has greenlit a new Splinter Cell game.
Henderson claims in his report that his development sources have claimed that the next Splinter Cell game has been greenlit from Ubisoft, however the game is not in development at the studio's central Montreal studio. Instead, it appears that Ubisoft has either handed the game to another of its many worldwide development teams (such as Ubisoft Toronto, which developed Blacklist, or an external development team. Henderson also claims that the game has been greenlit in response to the publisher attempting to rebuilt its image after the toxic workplace and discrimination allegations that begun to spread in 2020.
While the game has yet to enter full production, as it has only now just been greenlit by the higher-ups, the VGC report claims that the next Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell game could be announced as early as next year, likely at Ubisoft's E3 2022 press conference. This is still undecided though.
Source: Video Games Chronicle