It’s been seven years since Splinter Cell: Blacklist came out, and the wait for the next entry in the series grows more torturous every day (especially because of the criminal lack of love the industry has shown the stealth genre in recent years). There’s been no shortage of leaks, rumours, and speculation about a new Splinter Cell game, and the demand for a new entry is almost deafening at this point, but Ubisoft seem to have little interest in making a new mainline game in their beloved stealth series.
Well, that might not be so true. Speaking recently in an interview with Italian site Multiplayer.it, actor Luca Ward – who voiced Sam Fisher in the Italian dubs of four of the six mainline games in the series (all except Double Agent and Conviction) – said in no vague terms that he knows for a fact that Splinter Cell is coming back. He said that a new game was supposed to release this year, but after getting pushed back, probably due to COVID-19, might now come out next year.
“There is this return of Splinter Cell that is supposed to be a conclusive episode, but I’m not sure about this part,” he said. “They have not yet figured out whether to do it in 2021. It was going to release in 2020, and then COVID-19 happened, and several big projects in 2020 got delayed. Others went on, like Cyberpunk 2077 on which I have almost finished working.”
He added: “But I am sure that Splinter Cell will return, this is a fact.”
Given how long we’ve been waiting for a new Splinter Cell and how many times we’ve been burned by leaks in the past, it’s best not to take this as confirmation until we hear something official from Ubisoft- though Ward does, of course, have an extensive history of having worked on the franchise, which surely gives him plenty of legitimacy. Either way, it’s best not to be too sure about anything right now- you know, for your own sanity.
About a year ago, reports emerged claiming that there were no new Splinter Cell projects in development. A couple of months later, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said that the company is looking to use Splinter Cell to deliver “some new type of experiments, but more on different devices”. Shortly afterward, a report claimed that a VR-exclusive Splinter Cell game was in development.
