It looks like Ubisoft has revealed their big announcement they promised the other day. Talking in an interview with IGN, author Nathan Edmondson revealed that Sam Fisher's story would be bridged with a full-length graphic novel. Ubisoft has already made a similar transition with Assassin's Creed, resulting in two graphic novels.
Edmondson says that Splinter Cell's main character is "a character so bad ass, so cool with a history so truly rich he lends himself obviously and easily to storytelling beyond the game." When asked what would prevent this iteration from being a disaster Edmonson assured us that they "wouldn't have agreed to work on the book if we didn't know we'd able to do something special, something top-notch. Nothing has been dictated to us. The Splinter Cell Toronto team and the Tom Clancy folks have been partners with us all the way, giving input, encouraging ideas, helping us to better understand the Splinter Cell world, but they have never harnessed our creativity."
Since the Assassin Creed graphic novels were well received, it certainly looks like Ubisoft is taking the right approach with their IPs. We can expect Splinter Cell: Echos in 2013.