It felt until not that long ago like Ubisoft was announcing a new multiplayer shooter every other month, and it didn’t take long until the company started seeing criticism for the uninspired projects it was unveiling. That, in turn, seems to have brought about a change in strategy for Ubisoft, with a number of titles having been cancelled by the company over the last year or so- and it seems like details have emerged on one that hadn’t been announced before its cancellation.
A person claiming to be a Ubisoft playtester has said on 4chan (via Reddit) that Ubisoft was working on a battle royale Splinter Cell game called Splinter Cell Hunters at one point, though it has, by now, been cancelled. The leaker describes it as a third person PvPvE battle royale game with heavy extraction shooter elements.
Each match would be comprised of 28 players playing as duos who’d be tasked with finding and eliminating high-value targets (HVTs) scattered across a nighttime map while also contending with other players as well as AI enemies, with a Washington DMZ set to be the game’s setting. After eliminating HVTs, players would then be asked to raid loot caches and then get to an extraction point to leave the map and win the game.
If players died, they would be respawned as a mercenary with a predefined loadout- kill another player, and you’d be respawned back as a spy. Kill your duos partner, however, and you’d be marked as a traitor, though there isn’t much clarity on exactly what that would entail.
The alleged leaker also mentions progression mechanics and a leveling up system, various Spy Operators spanning multiple classes, stealth-focused gadgets, and more. Allegedly, Splinter Cell Hunters was “weeks” away from being officially announced before Ubisoft decided to pull the plug on it.
Another Splinter Cell project, Splinter Cell VR, was cancelled by Ubisoft last year. Thankfully for Splinter Cell fans, however, a ground-up remake of the series’ first instalment is currently in development.