New Splinter Cell Game Was Scrapped and Turned Into XDefiant

A New Splinter Cell Game Almost Happened

The new report comes from industry insider Jason Schreier in an article detailing how the recent hit Dispatch came to be. When talking with members of AdHoc Studio, Co-Founder Nick Herman and former developers of Telltale Games joined with Ubisoft’s San Francisco office back in 2017 to work on a then secret project, which was ultimately planned to be a new entry in the Splinter Cell franchise. Herman admitted his excitement about working on the series, which to that point had largely been left dormant, and felt that the team could not only tell a great story, but do something with it that longtime fans would love.

However, the feeling wouldn’t last long as, just months later, Ubisoft became highly interested in the Games-as-a-Service model, which allows companies to monetize games for months and sometimes years after launch, like Destiny 2, Fortnite, and other online-style games. While the team started prototyping a narrative GaaS game, Ubisoft seemingly decided to pivot off Splinter Cell entirely in an effort to make something competitive to an online shooter like Call of Duty.

Overtime, the work took shape and eventually became XDefiant, an online multiplayer shooter that collected fictional characters from many of Ubisoft’s big franchises like The Division, Rainbow Six, Watch_Dogs, Ghost Recon, Far Cry, Assassin’s Creed and even the aforementioned Splinter Cell. The ill-fated project rocketed out to a massive player base in May 2024, becoming the fastest Ubisoft title to hit 1 million unique players, but momentum quickly slowed down and xDefiant ultimately ended development in December of that same year.

Unfortunately, news hasn’t been any better for the Splinter Cell series as the previously announced remake has largely been missing in action. In addition to its lengthy development cycle, the Splinter Cell remake game director Andy Schmoll departed the project. What’s alarming is that Schmoll ultimately replaced former game director David Grivel, who left the project sometime in 2022. The lack of news from Ubisoft as well as all these staff departures are no doubt leaving many fans concerned about the project overall.

Source: Bloomberg