A new rumor suggests that Ubisoft is working on a new Splinter Cell title and bringing back veteran voice actor Michael Ironside to lend his voice to lead character Sam Fisher.

Since his last mission back in 2013, things have been quiet for Sam Fisher and the Splinter Cell franchise. After the generally well received launch of Splinter Cell Blacklist, a new generation of consoles in the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 launched, and other popular Ubisoft franchises have continued to release all without any sort of news on where the stealth-action franchise was heading. If the recent rumors brought to light by NeoGaf user Crossing Eden are believed to be true, fans may not have much longer to wait for news on Sam Fisher.

According to the report, longtime Sam Fisher voice actor, Michael Ironside, was spotted at Ubisoft Toronto last summer alongside his family. Featuring a state of the art motion capture studio, the Toronto studio took over as lead developer of the previous entry in the series, Splinter Cell Blacklist. Contacts with knowledge of projects at Ubisoft have told Crossing Eden that Ironside confirmed he was working on a new Splinter Cell title at Ubisoft, which was scheduled to begin after shooting wrapped up on a movie he was working on at the same time in Toronto.

Splinter Cell Blacklist Dev is Working on New Game

The contact also expressed disappointment that a trailer wasn't revealed at Ubisoft's E3 press conference this year, though having not seen any assets from the potential game could indicate that it is only early in development.

While the news may be exciting to longtime fans of the franchise, as always with these sorts of things, until it is officially confirmed by Ubisoft, fans should take the news with a grain of salt. What's odd about this rumor is the fact that Ironside personally handed the role of Sam Fisher to Eric Johnson, due to the physical nature that the performance capture required. While it's certainly possible Ironside could have changed his mind about the role, the same restrictions over mocap would remain however.

The last time fans saw Sam Fisher and crew was about three years ago with Splinter Cell Blacklist. the game's development was handed over to Ubisoft Toronto, a brand new studio which has since become a major player for the company by lending additional support to other major Ubisoft titles such as Watch_Dogs 2, Far Cry Primal, and others. When the studio initially opened in 2009, many Montreal employees made the transition, including a bunch of the Splinter Cell developers like Maxime Beland and Patrick Redding.

Are you potentially looking forward to see the return of Sam Fisher?  Let us know your thoughts below in the comments.

Source: NeoGaf