It’s Probably in the Shadows, Somewhere
It’s been several years since the legendary stealth franchise, Splinter Cell, had its day in the limelight. We haven’t seen anything tangible since 2013, and rumors on a revival have sprouted for the last two years or so. Recently, however, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot shed a little light on why the title has been absent.
Despite a swath of developers working on their games, Ubisoft had to allocate personnel to many other projects that don’t involve Sam Fisher. As Guillemot explained in an interview with IGN, every iteration of Splinter Cell must involve something “different.” Fan pressure to keep things unchanged swayed the devs away from a new installment.
“When you create a game, you have to make sure you will come with something that will be different enough from what you did before,” said Guillemot. “Last time we did a Splinter Cell, we had lots of pressure from all the fans saying, ‘Don’t change it; don’t do this; don’t do that.’ So some of the teams were more anxious to work on the brand.”
The last game, Splinter Cell Black List, hit shelves back in 2013. Ubisoft Toronto, the studio behind Blacklist’s development, had another game in the works until founder and manager Jade Raymond left the outfit.
Throughout the years, many more Ubisoft developers sought roles in other projects, like the Assassin’s Creed franchise. In order to crank out other games, the studios had to put Splinter Cell on hold. The video game company has a lot of franchises under their belt, but that doesn’t mean they won’t return to their classic Tom Clancy property eventually.
“Now there are some things and some people that are now looking at the brand; taking care of the brand,” Guillemot continued. “At one point you will see something but I can’t say more than that. Also, because of Assassin’s Creed and all the other brands taking off, people wanted to work on those brands more. So we have to follow what they like to do.”
Ubisoft is still blazing a trail with the success of Tom Clancy’s The Division 2, which became no.1 on PlayStation’s download list for March. For more info on new and ongoing Ubisoft projects, we may have to wait until E3 2019.
Happy gaming.
SOURCE: Gaming Bolt