Rumors about a new Splinter Cell installment have been swirling for months, and Ubisoft has made a curious move amidst the social media buzz. A familiar trademark for the series has just been updated, lending more proof to the murmurings of a new game being in active development. This trademark was originally filed back in May 2017 and was quietly updated on December 6. Although the change is minimal, this re-filing implies that Splinter Cell is on the companies mind, and the first mainline installment in the series may finally be coming after over a decade of quiet restlessness.
One change made to the filing removes the phrase “interactive multi-player computer games” and replaces it with “providing an online computer game.” This may look like nothing groundbreaking, but Ubisoft wouldn’t be messing with the language unless it had at least some inkling of what was coming next. In October, a report posted to VGC stated that a new PC Splinter Cell title was underway, with development on the game being handled once again by Ubisoft Montreal.
Just last week, game industry insider Tom Henderson made a post to Twitter detailing what the next game in the franchise may look like. In an almost comical departure from past Splinter Cell games, this rumored title is said to be semi-open-world “similar to how Halo Infinite has done its open-world,” and is also described as being “a more stealthy version of Assassin’s Creed.”
The last Splinter Cell game, Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Blacklist, was released for the PlayStation 3, Wii U, PC, and Xbox 360 way back in 2013. In October, Ubisoft announced a battle-royale title Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Frontline, said to be a 100-player free-to-play shooter. A closed technical test for the game was scheduled to begin in October but was delayed with no new date announced.
This rumored open-world Splinter Cell game is still in early development with no platforms or release date listed.