Some people worry they peaked in high school – but Ubisoft veteran Clint Hocking thinks he reached a summit with the adored 2005 stealth game Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, and he's OK with that. He never wants to make another Splinter Cell game again.

Hocking tells FRVR in a new interview, "I'm just happy to have made a really, really amazing game that's probably the best – I don't think it's my best game –" that title belongs to Far Cry 2, he says, "but I definitely feel like it’s the best Splinter Cell that I could make. And I don't think I could ever do better."

The developer spent a total of nearly 15 years at Ubisoft working on Splinter Cell, Far Cry 2, and, most recently, Assassin's Creed Hexe as its creative director before leaving in February and starting his current studio, Build Machine Games. The developer's quitting in winter was the second time he'd ditched Ubisoft, and he isn't involved in the Splinter Cell remake the publisher is apparently still working on despite too many layoffs this year. Nonetheless, he gives the studio his blessing.

Hocking says about Splinter Cell, "It can live on its own and other people can do what they want." He adds, "It's not my brand. I don't own it. I don't want to own it."

He explains, "I had my fill of Splinter Cell by making it." Hocking says he elected to bleed out 12, 14, 16-hour work days while making Chaos Theory over 20 years ago, telling FRVR, "I was always there because it's what I love to do and it was super engaging."

But all those hours add up. The tally equals enough Splinter Cell for one lifetime. So Hocking concludes, "To me, Splinter Cell is Chaos Theory. It's the best Splinter Cell I can make. It's the last Splinter Cell I ever hope to make." And that's all there is to it.

Valve reportedly threatened Ubisoft with a total delisting of Rainbow Six Siege "by end of day tomorrow" when it tried selling it cheaper on Uplay.

As Ubisoft continues to undergo the "major reset" the publisher's leadership announced last month, 40 developers at the company's Toronto studio have hit the chopping block. Ubisoft Toronto is the studio behind the long-promised Splinter Cell remake, and somehow, the company insists the project is still happening, even with all the layoffs.

"This decision was not taken lightly and does not in any way reflect the talent, dedication, or contributions of the individuals affected," a Ubisoft spokesperson tells Canadian tech outlet MobileSyrup. "Our priority now is to support them through this transition with comprehensive severance packages and robust career placement assistance." GamesRadar+ has reached out for comment.

Ubisoft additionally confirmed that it's still working on the Splinter Cell remake it first announced way back in 2021. I'd certainly forgive you for doubting Ubisoft's word here given that we haven't seen a single second of Sam Fisher's return even now, but hey, this is one game publisher that moves in mysterious ways. If Skull and Bones can make it to market after a decade in development hell, who knows what else is possible?

But equally, the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time remake is officially dead, and Ubisoft's similar assurances that Beyond Good and Evil 2 is still happening continue to ring pretty hollow. No game at a major publisher ever seems to be more than one mediocre financial quarter away from cancellation these days, and that remains true no matter how storied the franchise is.

More important than any individual game, of course, are the developers making them. We don't know the scale of the layoffs that will happen at Ubisoft overall in the months to come, but the company has ominously promised investors that it will "rightsize the new organization." A "voluntary" layoff plan that would cut 200 jobs is on the table at Ubisoft's Paris headquarters, and even with 40 more jobs lost in Toronto, I doubt we've seen the end of the cuts just yet.

The developers behind narrative superhero adventure Dispatch have certainly proven that there's still a big audience for story-driven single-player games these days – it's just too bad they couldn't convince their bosses at Ubisoft of that fact a few years ago. Some of the founding members of developer AdHoc Studio were working on a new Splinter Cell game before higher-ups tried to push it down the live service route.

After working on Tales from the Borderlands, Telltale veterans Nick Herman, Dennis Lenart, and Pierre Shorette all joined Ubisoft in 2017 where, according to a new report from Bloomberg, the trio started work on a Splinter Cell game.

"I was so excited to be a part of this and help revitalize it, because it's been dormant for a while," Herman says. “And we thought we could tell a great story and do something the fans would love." But according to Bloomberg, the project pivoted under the whims of Ubisoft management, who wanted a games-as-a-service hit.

Herman says the team "tried" to make the pivot work while hanging onto their storytelling interests. "Let's make a narrative GAAS game," Herman says. "We were trying to make that make sense, and a lot of cool prototypes were made."

The report suggests that Ubisoft lost interest in that Splinter Cell game and was more interested in chasing Call of Duty's success. Ultimately, the project morphed into xDefiant, a game that seemed to spend forever in playtests before it eventually launched in 2024 – only to shut down barely a year later.

“It was exciting to go to work for the first six months because we thought we were going to be able to make something really great,” Herman concludes to Bloomberg. “And then you realize that all of the things you care about, they don’t anymore. It's a common thing in games.”

Herman, Lenart, and Shorette left Ubisoft in 2018, founding AdHoc along with another Telltale vet in Michael Choung. With 1 million sales in 10 days, AdHoc's Dispatch seems to be proving there really was an audience willing to pay for a good single-player experience. But I guess that's not a scale of success that registers for Ubisoft – after all, xDefiant itself shut down with over 15 million players on the books.

After 4 quiet years, Ubisoft keeps some hope alive for its Splinter Cell revival as it asks for some parts of the Netflix show to be cut because of "other plans" for the dormant stealth series.

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Deathwatch has officially been renewed for a second season. The Netflix animated series adapts the long running Splinter Cell espionage game franchise, in which the player takes on the role of special agent Sam Fisher, infiltrating and sneaking through enemy territory in service of a US black ops organization known as Third Echelon.

Splinter Cell: Deathwatch is created by Derek Kolstad, best known for the John Wick franchise, with game studio Ubisoft, and co-directed by Guillaume Dousse and Félicien Colmet-Daage. Actor Liev Schreiber returns in season 2 in the lead voice role of Sam Fisher, alongside actor Kirby Howell-Baptiste's Zinnia Mckenna.

"In this first-ever adaptation of the acclaimed stealth video game franchise Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell, legendary agent Sam Fisher is drawn back into the field when a wounded young operative seeks out his help," reads Netflix's official description of Splinter Cell: Deathwatch. "Produced by Ubisoft, in partnership with Derek Kolstad (John Wick), Sun Creature and Fost."

The last Splinter Cell game was released in 2002, spawning seven spin-offs and sequels, along with a whole series of novels that are still being published. Though the series bears his name, novelist Tom Clancy is not the author of the books, and merely endorsed the game series following the success of the Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon games which also bear his name.

The last game in the series, Splinter Cell: Blacklist, was released in 2013. Still, Ubisoft has kept hope alive that the series will return in some form sooner rather than later, as the first season of Splinter Cell: Deathwatch had to change some plot points due to the developer having "other plans" for the franchise.

No release date for Splinter Cell: Deathwatch season 2 has been announced. While we wait, check out the 25 best shows on Netflix to watch right now.

It's been over a decade since a new Splinter Cell game launched, and nearly four years since developer Ubisoft quietly announced it was working on a remake of the original stealth title. The upcoming Netflix show, Splinter Cell: Deathwatch, is the biggest sign of life the franchise has had in ages, and it seems Ubisoft still has some plans beyond it.

Splinter Cell: Deathwatch showrunner Derek Kolstad, who you might recognize as the creator and writer of the John Wick series, has some "hope" that his show will be considered canon to the game series.

"[Ubisoft's] got a stranglehold on their IP for good measure because they've got some of the best titles," Kolstad tells IGN. "But there were some things that along the way [they] were like, 'Don't do that.' And I'm like, 'Why?' And they're like, 'Hey, we got other plans.' Again, I only get to peer behind part of the curtain for what they're thinking [of for the] long run. But for what I want to do with the anime and talking in the future of any other spinoff they want to do, it's going like, 'This fits the mold.'"

Of course, it remains to be seen exactly what those "other plans" are, never mind whether they actually come to fruition at all. Ubisoft sparked hopes of Splinter Cell game news earlier this year with a mysterious tweet ahead of Summer Game Fest, but those hopes came to naught.

The long, long wait for that Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time remake doesn't exactly spark much confidence in the chances for Ubisoft franchise revivals to happen in a timely manner, but here's hoping Sam Fisher gets back to interactive action sooner rather than later.

"We had failed as designers": Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory director says developing the original stealth game was "very difficult," but that it drove Ubisoft to do "much, much better."

Splinter Cell remake has been missing in action for years, but Ubisoft just decided to tease fans of the franchise in probably the oddest way possible.

Just earlier today, the publisher took to social media to post a close-up shot of Splinter Cell main man Sam Fisher sternly staring straight into the camera as if you've just eaten the leftovers he's been dreaming about all day. The screenshot, taken from 2005 Xbox classic Chaos Theory, was accompanied by nothing other than some cheeky emojis and a Splinter Cell hashtag. Very curious.

The tease at least has Splinter Cell diehards all riled up considering it's been more than a decade since the last mainline game in the series, 2013's Blacklist, and Ubisoft's Splinter Cell remake hasn't reared its head in ages.

The out-of-the-blue screenshot might just be leading up to a new announcement at Summer Games Fest 2025 (notE3), which kicks off next week with an opening showcase on June 6, followed by an Xbox Games Showcase on June 8. (Fingers crossed.) Netflix Tudum also kicks off tomorrow, potentially containing news of the upcoming Splinter Cell animated show. There's also the possibility that jokey tweet is just that: a joke, as cruel as that might be.

Ubisoft announced a remake for the first stealth classic almost four full years ago now, and offered no more than some concept art from the game to celebrate the series' 20th anniversary. In the years since, the Assassin's Creed publisher hasn't shown off or talked about the game much - it did, however, make the wait slightly more arduous by cancelling Splinter Cell's VR spin-off.

For now, check out some of the other new games of 2025 and beyond.

Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory represented almost the very best of the graphical technology available at the time, and the team behind it would have been hard-pressed to have pushed it any further.

Speaking to Edge Magazine, Clint Hocking - creative director on Chaos Theory and a writer and designer on the original Splinter Cell - said that when it came to the third game in the iconic stealth series, "we couldn't have gotten more out of the hardware if we wanted to. In many ways, Chaos theory and a small handful of other titles led the transition to a sort of pseudo-next generation."

That not-quite new generation was kickstarted by the original Xbox. Arriving more than 18 months after the PS2, and well after the Sega Dreamcast, Hocking says that Microsoft's first console kicked off a "paradigm shift in rendering technology." As with any new console, it would take a few years until developers worked out how to get the most out of the hardware - but by the time Chaos Theory arrived, a few months before the Xbox 360, Hocking and his team had pushed it as far as they thought it could go.

That work paid off. While Chaos Theory was well-received on most major platforms, it was clearly at its best on Xbox, where it still boasts its best scores to this day. Hocking maintains that the improved lighting and rendering on that platform compared to the PS2 and PC releases was only "made possible for the first time by the Xbox."

Don't believe us? Check out our list of the best Xbox games of all time.

Development of the original Splinter Cell was "very difficult," which led to a completely different approach for Chaos Theory, according to its creative director.

Speaking to Edge Magazine, Clint Hocking admitted that "development on the first game had been very, very difficult." Hocking, who went on to be creative director on Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory as well as Far Cry 2 (and the upcoming Assassin's Creed: Codename Hexe), says that "many of us who went on to work on Chaos Theory felt we could have done much, much better."

Most of the problems, Hocking claims, came from the fact that "we had failed as designers and developers to anticipate how the game would actually play." Eventually, the team at Ubisoft started to realize the errors that had crept in - their stealth game never really offered players enough freedom to work around their errors. Unfortunately, it was too late to fix things. "By the time we encountered the problem, we had no plan and no time to address it except by forcing a mission failure."

Those failures were so apparent that Chaos Theory was quick to make note of them, a brief fourth wall-breaking moment early in the game attempting to make light by telling Fisher that he's not in a video game. Thankfully, however, Hocking and his team had a better sense of how to address those mistakes than simply making jokes about them.

"The core game experience did not change significantly [from the original Splinter Cell]," he says. That meant that it was "very clear to us what was working and what needed to be fixed. Our common goal became simply to deliver - to an exceptionally high degree of quality and polish - all the promises we felt we'd failed to deliver in the first game."

"It seemed to me then, and it still seems so today, that the only path toward improving what we had done in the best parts of the original Splinter Cell was to totally unify story and level design from the beginning of the game to end."

That path was the right one - Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory sits at a 94% score on Metacritic for its envelope-pushing Xbox version, a figure that Hocking says suggests there was little he could have changed that would have made the game any better than it was.

It's been a while since the last Splinter Cell, so here are the best stealth games you can practice with while we wait for the remake.

The creative director of the next Assassin's Creed game, Assassin's Creed: Codename Hexe, says that he will never repeat the level of crunch he experienced as the creative director of Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory.

Speaking to Edge Magazine, Clint Hocking explains that he "took on too many tasks and too many responsibilities" as the lead developer behind the Splinter Cell sequel, which was developed in just two years. Hocking, who served as a scriptwriter and lead level designer, eventually also took on the mantle of the game's creative director. Eventually, he found himself working 80-hour weeks, which he's previously said gave him brain damage, resulting in memory loss.

"[I was] effectively doing three jobs at the same time," Hocking says. "I was enthusiastic and passionate about doing that work, but it took a toll on my personal well-being." Thankfully, Hocking hasn't repeated that level of work since - while he did pull double-duty as creative director and scriptwriter on 2008's iconic Far Cry 2, by the time of 2020's Watch Dogs: Legion, he was only serving as creative director, a role he's repeating on the upcoming Assassin's Creed Hexe.

"20 years later, it's clear I would not, and could not do the same [amount of work]. Now I only have one job. I am just the creative director, and I try to surround myself with people who are better than me at those other jobs. Certainly, this has proven more sustainable, and hopefully I'll get to keep doing it for another 20 years."

If nothing else, the kind of extended crunch that Hocking is talking about has become less prevalent over the past two decades as devs speak out more against unsustainable work practices, so hopefully, he'll never be in a position to have to work quite that hard again.

While we know very little about Hexe - at the beginning of this year, it namedropped the project for the first time in more than two years - the rest of Hocking's collected works are impressive. Splinter Cell, Chaos Theory, and Far Cry 2 were all extremely well-received titles. Unfortunately, both Hexe and the upcoming Splinter Cell remake are still pretty much AWOL, so we'll be waiting a while to learn more about Hocking's work.

Want to catch up? Here's a list of all the upcoming Assassin's Creed games.

Hideo Kojima is one of the most recognizable names in gaming as the Metal Gear Solid and Death Stranding 2 director has not only been loudly at the forefront of all of his game's marketing campaigns, but he's even brushed shoulders with Hollywood celebrities again and again throughout the decades, in particular with his upcoming horror thing (?) OD. 

Francois Coulon, the director behind the original 2002 Splinter Cell, claims that Hideo Kojima's auteur status veering on celebrity status is much-deserved, though. "It is hard for me to measure the impact of Mr. Kojima alone vs Kojima and his team but, to be honest, it is not important," Coulon said while speaking in the most recent issue of Retro Gamer magazine. "A creative lead in this industry is someone who can convey his vision to other team members so that they can also bring something to the creative table. I don't know how Mr Kojima is managing his teams but the result speaks for itself."

Kojima's lengthy career stretches back to the 1980s where he first served as a director, designer, and writer on cyberpunky visual novel Snatcher, as well as the first isometric Metal Gear games. But his breakout success, the game that catapulted his name into auteur territory, was the stealth-laden Metal Gear Solid with all its anti-war messaging and ambitiously-framed, sometimes overindulgent cutscenes that have since become emblematic of Kojima's games.

Although as modern blockbuster games become bigger and bigger, with sometimes thousands of developers working on a single project, the idea of an auteur becomes more controversial. It's easy to attribute an indie game's success to its solo-developer, but when hundreds of developer's fingerprints are etched into Death Stranding 2, is it still okay to label Kojima as the author? The creator? To heap all the praise onto his lap? Coulon certainly thinks Kojima can be thought of as the main architect, but it all raises some interesting questions, I think.

The Splinter Cell director also mentioned that Metal Gear Solid’s “clear rules” showed the team ‘how stealth should be done.”

Ubisoft developers working on the original Splinter Cell borrowed a thing or two from Metal Gear Solid's influential, stealthy 'action espionage' way of doing things.

Hideo Kojima's 1998 action-adventure, Metal Gear Solid, by no means invented the the act of sneaking around intricate, zig-zagging levels all while unarmed, but it did somewhat popularize the stealth genre in general. Metal Gear Solid's complicated anti-war storyline and sometimes indulgent, always ambitious cutscenes are probably what garners the most attention nowadays, though the game's careful infiltration is what snuck into other series.

Speaking to Retro Gamer in Issue 261, the original Splinter Cell director Francois Coulon reveals the team looked to Solid Snake's antics for inspiration when creating Sam Fisher's similarly hush-hush debut. "MGS showed us how stealth mechanics should be done," says Francois, specifically pointing to the classic game's "clear rules" that always clarified what was happening and how to react. 

"It is a complete and consistent set of rules that set the way for any stealth game," Coulon continues. "Remove one of its elements and the experience will be dull, frustrating, or ridiculous. MGS was perfectly executed in that regard. No frustration - you know when you lose and you don't blame the game for it."

Things have come full circle for both stealth icons in the decades since their debut as publisher Konami went back to the drawing board with a series of re-releases and an upcoming Metal Gear Solid 3 remake, and Ubisoft is kind of trying the same approach with a Splinter Cell remake that was announced three years ago and has since gone MIA. 

While we wait for both, why not check out the best stealth games tip-toeing around?

The BBC and Ubisoft are working together on an audio version of the latest Splinter Cell book, documenting Sam Fischer’s newest outing. 

According to the BBC, the adaption will be airing during December as an eight-part series that will follow the events of Splinter Cell: Firewall, the latest book in the series. The novel was penned by James Swallow and released in June 22, where it chronicled the newest adventure of Fischer.

Sadly, the special agent’s iconic voice, as portrayed by Michael Ironside, will not be returning to the production, as Andonis Anthony will be slipping on the tri-goggles. He will be playing an older Sam Fischer, who is tasked with training and recruiting the newest Splinter Cell operatives. The crux comes when that talent pool includes his own daughter.

The cast also includes Will Poulter in an undisclosed role, who said of the production: “It is taking the best of Splinter Cell and building on that to make something really well rounded.”

This isn’t the news Splinter Cell fans might be hoping for, as many will likely want to hear more about a new game altogether - however, there's content coming on that front in the future. The most pressing is the upcoming Splinter Cell remake. While we don't know too much about the game, we’ve recently caught our first glimpses of concept art, and it looks great. However, there's still no hint on how long we might be waiting to hear more. 

It’s also not clear if a true sequel to the series will ever come either. Sam Fischer has turned up in a lot of games not called Splinter Cell in recent years, including Rainbow Six Siege and Ghost Recon Wildlands. That said, if a new adventure ever does release, and takes place later in the timeline, this BBC radio play could end up being relevant. Especially as it follows Fischer's daughter’s rise through the Splinter Cell program, it leaves you to wonder if she’d feature in any future titles. You'd best listen to it, if you want to stay up to date with your Splinter Cell lore.

Prefer going quiet to going loud? Here are some of the best stealth games out there.

As part of the franchise's 20th-anniversary celebrations (Feel old? Yup, me too), Splinter Cell developers past and present met up at Ubisoft Toronto to discuss the series' origins, future, and legacy, including some of the team currently working on the new Splinter Cell remake, which was announced this time last year. 

The anniversary event includes an interview with creative director Chris Auty, technical director Christian Carriere, senior game designer Andy Schmoll, and associate level design director Zavian Porter, who all sat down to discuss the early Splinter Cell games’ "lighting, visuals, player agency, and everything else that made them so revolutionary".

Interestingly, it also revealed that you can beat the new Splinter Cell without a single kill thanks to new mechanics that will allow players to "de-escalate" situations. 

"We want to scale that back a bit in the remake, and we want to give the player a few more opportunities to deescalate some of those situations," explained senior game designer Andy Schmoll. 

"Obviously, stealth is an extremely important pillar for us, and we aim to incorporate modern design philosophies, improving the minute-to-minute stealth gameplay that was so special in the original."

"So Sam, being the ultimate covert field agent, he has an enormous array of tools and abilities, gadgets, and movements at his disposal," adds creative director, Chris Auty. "And with all of those, they aim to create these moments of tension. You know there's an enemy nearby. You know that there's a threat coming around the corner. 

"And he has these tools in his toolbox that he can use to react to that stuff at a split second. If there's an enemy coming around the corner that you didn't spot in time, he can do these split jumps, get up high, and kind of avoid contact. He can plan ahead by looking under doorways and using these tools to understand where the threats and that sort of thing are. 

"We want to create these moments of tension that the player will need to use those tools and gadgets to react, too."

That's not all, either. As part of the celebrations, Ubisoft is giving away the original Splinter Cell game for free from now until the end of the month, November 30. 

As for the Splinter Cell remake? Ubisoft revealed the first look at "early concept art" yesterday. As Ali summarized at the time, much of the artwork shows lead character Sam Fisher lurking stealthily in the shadows.

"The Splinter Cell remake, announced last year, will be a celebration of the 20-year-old game, taking inspiration from the original games, modernizing their themes, and rebuilding them for a modern audience," Ubisoft explained.

Prefer going quiet to going loud? Here are some of the best stealth games out there.

Ubisoft Toronto hopes to see its forthcoming Splinter Cell Remake establish "a good foundation for the franchise." 

"It's not simply a remaster," creative director Chris Auty says in a new video celebrating the Splinter Cell series' 20th anniversary. "It's being built from the ground up. You get to do all the content from scratch, fresh and ready to go." 

"We're aiming to create this top-tier remake and push quality as much as possible," adds associate level design director Zavian Porter. "It should help us set a good foundation for the franchise going forward." 

Porter's comments, in particular, can optimistically be read to imply that Ubisoft is at least considering more than one new (albeit remade) game for Splinter Cell. Granted, Ubisoft did cancel four games including Splinter Cell VR just months ago. But strategically, this would fit with the studio's previously mentioned vision of broadening the series' horizons and engaging new players, but we also can't assume that more projects are in the works, especially with the remake itself still far from release. 

Technical director Christian Carrierre notes that "we've seen a lot of great posts from the community. We read the open letter that was on the subreddit. We see all of the other posts on various socials. It's really energizing us to keep going." 

"Obviously with a remake 20 years later, we can look back at the plot, characters, the overall story, and make some improvements," Auty added. "Things that might not have aged particularly well. Small things. But the core of the story, the core of the experience will remain as it was in the original." 

Auty also confirmed that Ubisoft Toronto will be "going dark" for a while to focus on the remake's development, so don't expect to see more of it for some time. 

The same video also saw the release of some early concept art, giving us our first look at the Splinter Cell Remake. 

Ubisoft has revealed the first look at "early concept art" for its Splinter Cell Remake.

In a new video celebrating the series 20th anniversary, Ubisoft shared a handful of images from the remake, which it announced in December 2021.

Unsurprisingly, much of the artwork focuses on Sam Fisher lurking in the shadows, preparing to take down some unsuspecting goons. Only one of the images deviates significantly, showing off a large building in the pouring rain.

What's interesting about the concept art is how much of it appears to focus on the contrast between light and dark. Several shots are bathed in golden light, the sun or bright bulbs making a stark contrast with Fisher himself. It's a very pretty, golden hour-esque effect that could look beautiful if it makes it to the game itself.

That comes from "ray-traced illumination, which gives you much more realistic lighting effects," according to technical director Christian Carriere. The video goes into the extra work that Ubisoft is able top put into the game thanks to improvements in visual and audio design - Carriere says that sound will be absorbed in different ways by different materials, and bounce around levels in a way that much more realistic.

Fans had been facing rumours of a new Splinter Cell game for years ahead of Ubisoft's announcement last year, but it looks as though we'll be waiting a good while longer to go on Fisher's next adventure. Back in December, the game was in "the very earliest stages of development," and with only concept art shown off so far, we're likely still some way out.

Prefer going quiet to going loud? Here are some of the best stealth games out there.

The director of the upcoming Splinter Cell reboot has left the project, causing concern about the status of the franchise’s return. 

As spotted on Linkedin (via Reddit), once director of the upcoming Splinter Cell reboot, David Grivel, has left the project. This sees the end of an 11-year career at Ubisoft for Grivel, where he worked across franchises like Ghost Recon, Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, and Splinter Cell.

This isn’t the best news for starved Splinter Cell fans, as it’s the only major revelation to come out of the reboot since it was confirmed last December. For those waiting expectantly for news on the project, there'd have been hope for something a little more uplifting. 

That being said, this isn't too abnormal for game development. Many top-ranking developers can come and go from projects for various reasons. With development so guarded that even Sam Fisher would struggle to get his hands on the secrets, it’s hard to know the current state of development or reasons for Grivel’s departure, who simply let on, "it is now time for me to go on a new adventure".

It’s been nearly a decade since the last major game in the Splinter Cell series, with Splinter Cell: Blacklist coming out back in 2013. However, Sam Fisher has been having a small renaissance outside of his own franchise in recent years. He’s shown up as Zero in Rainbow Six Siege, and had a special mission in Ghost Recon: Breakpoint and Ghost Recon: Wildlands. 

It’s clear this cross-pollination is meant to lead to the reintroduction of the upcoming reboot, however, with this news of Grivel’s departure, and the game only beginning to hire a team at the end of last year, it probably wise to set your expectations for a couple of years away.

Can't wait for Splinter Cell? Why not look at our list of the Best Tom Clancy Games. 

The upcoming Splinter Cell remake might be slightly different from the original due to it being rewritten for modern-day audiences. 

This news comes from a screenwriter job listing at Ubisoft (as found by PSU), which says that the developer is "rewriting and updating the story for a modern-day audience." The job description also says, "we want to keep the spirit and themes of the original game while exploring our characters and the world to make them more authentic and believable." If you didn't know, the original Splinter Cell was released in 2002, so it's safe to say that a lot has changed in 20 years. 

Long-time fans can rest assured that the essence of the original will still be intact though as further down in the job listing reads: "As a Scriptwriter at Ubisoft Toronto, you will join the Narrative team and help create a cohesive and compelling narrative experience for a new audience of Splinter Cell fans." The job description also says that Ubisoft is "assembling a team with passion, drive, and respect for the trifocal goggles" as well as "preserving what's at the heart of the Splinter Cell experience."

After originally being revealed back in December 2021, we don't know too much else about the Splinter Cell remake, other than the fact it's being made with Ubisoft's snowdrop engine - the same one being used to develop Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora and Ubisoft's upcoming Star Wars game. There's also no firm release date for the remake yet but considering it's still in the scriptwriting stage we may be waiting a while for this one. 

Wondering what else we have to look forward to in the near future? Take a look at our new games 2022 list.  

The Ubisoft studio in charge of the new Splinter Cell wants to bring in new players while also being sure to satisfy the core of Sam Fisher's faithful.

Ubisoft Toronto managing director Istvan Tajnay shed some light on how his studio is approaching the heavy task of bringing back Splinter Cell in an official Ubisoft interview. He said he's feeling a mixture of excitement, pride, and responsibility at picking up the future of the series: "we know how high the expectations of the fans are for us to modernize the brand while making absolutely sure we don't lose any of its essence; we want to make sure that Splinter Cell fans really love it."

Tajnay said playing the original Splinter Cell before he became a game developer was impressive, particularly in "how uncompromising the focus on stealth was, and how it redefined what stealth meant in a video game." But how do you do that again for modern players? With the new Splinter Cell still very early in development according to its initial announcement, Ubisoft Toronto still has a lot of time to answer that question.

"When it comes to future projects, I want the studio to revive the Splinter Cell brand," Tajnay said. "To really satisfy its core audience that is very hungry for a new Splinter Cell and also broaden the horizon of the series to new players. I see a bright future for Splinter Cell."

The interview is also a not-so-subtle about being an informal recruitment ad, with lots of talk about how Ubisoft Toronto is seeking diverse job applicants and how the studio aims to grow over the next five years. In other words, while Ubisoft Toronto already put out both Far Cry 6 and Watch Dogs: Legion in rapid succession, we should expect even more from it going forward.

The new Splinter Cell will be a while, but you can see what we're looking forward to playing before then with our guide to new games 2022. 

A Splinter Cell remake has begun development at Ubisoft Toronto, the developer has confirmed.

In a new press release, Ubisoft stated that it had "greenlit the development of a Splinter Cell remake that will draw from the rich canvas of the brand." It'll be built in the Snowdrop Engine that's being used to make Ubisoft's upcoming Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora and unnamed Star Wars Lucasfilm Games title.

This is the first major Splinter Cell release since Blacklist in 2013, and while it's only a remake, could mark the end of Ubisoft's reticence to revisit the series, which CEO Yves Guillemot has noted in the past.

Rumours of a new game have been swirling for years, but there's been no mention until now of a remake of the original. The best hint we've had on that front was a recent updating of the Splinter Cell trademark, but even that was no definite confirmation that anything was being worked on. 

Since Blacklist, Sam Fisher has turned up in a few other projects, most notably a Splinter Cell game announced last year for Oculus.

Ubisoft announced the project with an interview with creative director Chris Auty, producer Matt West, and technical producer Peter Handrinos. During that conversation, West made it clear that the game was still in "the very earliest stages of development," and that the game would be rebuilt with visual and design updates.

Stealth will remain extremely important, and the developers also make clear that they're maintaining the original game's linear approach, distancing this project from reports of an open-world take on the series.

The longer-term future of Splinter Cell remains unclear, and there's absolutely no word on when this remake might release, but Auty does close the interview by saying that "with this remake, we are building a solid base for the future of Splinter Cell," which is likely to be good news for fans of the series who have been waiting patiently for a new game for many years.

Prefer going quiet to going loud? Here are some of the best stealth games out there.

A Splinter Cell trademark has been updated by Ubisoft, amid reports the company is working on a new entry for the series.

The trademark, filed on December 6 (via Justia Trademarks) is a renewal of a previously-filed Splinter Cell trademark from May 2017. The recent set of changes (via TheGamePost), removes the phrase "interactive multi-player computer games" from the filing, replacing it with "providing an online computer game."

That could mean that there'll be online elements to a future Splinter Cell game, but that Ubisoft is walking back some previously-planned PvE or co-op elements. Beyond those details, however, it's difficult to glean much from the refreshed trademark beyond the developer's potential desire to do something with the franchise. 

In October, reports suggested that a new Splinter Cell game partially inspired by the recent Hitman games was in the early stages of development. As recently as last week, separate reports emerged claiming that Ubisoft was working on an open-world take on the Splinter Cell series.

Both reports state that the development projects aren't very far along, so don't expect Sam Fisher's return particularly soon. Still, the new trademark is an official ray of hope for a franchise that hasn't seen a new entry since 2013's Blacklist - the result of Ubisoft's wariness of the pressure of creating a new Splinter Cell game. Other than a VR game announced last September, fans have had a pretty quiet eight years, but perhaps this latest action is the start of a stealthy turnaround.

Prefer going quiet to going loud? Here are some of the best stealth games out there.

No, Ubisoft isn't banning players for asking about Splinter Cell: Blacklist's broken servers.

Yesterday on November 25, Kotaku reported that Ubisoft would begin banning players if they submitted support tickets about the online status of Splinter Cell: Blacklist. The servers of Blacklist have been broken for a fair while now, and a thread that pertained to have been written by a Ubisoft staff member warned players that they would be permanently banned from the publisher's forums if they entered support tickets about the status of Blacklist's servers.

However, the entire thing was actually a hoax. Ubisoft later contacted Kotaku to clarify that the user in question actually wasn't affiliated with them in any way, and players wouldn't be banned for asking about the online status of Splinter Cell: Blacklist via the publisher's forums.

Unfortunately, that doesn't really change anything for Blacklist's broken servers. While Ubisoft has no interest in banning users for asking about the game's servers, it doesn't appear to have any more interest in actually fixing those servers.

Rest in peace, Splinter Cell: Blacklist. There have been rumors swirling about the status of Splinter Cell for what feels like years now, but nothing has ever come from various claims from the far corners of the internet that Ubisoft is reviving the long-dormant series. Last month, a report claimed that Ubisoft is actively testing a Splinter Cell revival inspired by IO Interactive's excellent Hitman trilogy, but nothing has been confirmed by the publisher right now.

For a list of games that actually are on the immediate horizon, you can check out our new games 2021 guide for more.

Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory is free to download via Ubisoft Connect PC, and you've got until 9am local time on Thursday, November 25 to claim your copy. 

As Ubisoft explained in an announcement post, as long as you download Chaos Theory within this limited freebie window, you'll get to keep it forever and play it whenever you want. You can claim the game directly through Ubisoft's post provided you already have a Ubisoft Connect account set up, and to play it, all you need to do is install the launcher for the publisher's storefront/social club hybrid. 

Giveaways like this pop up on Ubisoft Connect fairly regularly, so even if Chaos Theory doesn't trip your trigger, free is free, and it's worth having an account set up so you're prepared for future freebies. 

If you like keeping your PC games in one place, and that place also happens to be Steam, you can alternatively get Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory on Steam for $2.50 right now. Coincidentally, it's on sale for 75% off until Monday, November 22.

Chaos Theory was originally released in 2005, and its depiction of information warfare circum 2008 is oddly charming, even quaint, given today's technology. This back-of-the-box blurb from its Steam page is also a gut-punch of aged nostalgia: 

"As good as real - Never-before-seen graphics technology offers the best visuals on any system yet. Advanced physics engine allowing ragdoll physics, particle effects, and perfect interaction with the environment."

As good as real. May the universe give us even half the confidence of mid-2000s video game marketing.

Sadly, Chaos Theory's multiplayer was retired in 2016, but upcoming indie stealth game Spectre hopes to recapture and build on the legacy of its Spies vs Mercs mode.

Update: A new Splinter Cell game may have been in development for several months.

A new Venturebeat report claims that Ubisoft ran a test session with consumers in the weeks before E3 2021, which ran from 12-15 June. Players reportedly tested the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time remake, "and something that had the appearance of a new Splinter Cell prototype."

Details are scarce, as testers are not said to have spent long with the project, which was presented as "a vertical slice that was just a basic tutorial section." Venturebeat does state, however, that "this version of the game combined familiar Splinter Cell actions with elements of the 2016 Hitman reboot."

It's important to note that this isn't necessarily the same project said to have been recently greenlit by Ubisoft (see original story, below). Venturebeat was not able to corroborate those reports, and projects can change significantly through the development process, especially at this early stage.  

Original story: A new Splinter Cell game has reportedly been greenlit at Ubisoft.

According to VGC, the new project "has been put into production as a means of winning back fans frustrated by recent efforts to revive the franchise" which saw Sam Fisher head to VR and mobile platforms.

It's not currently known which studios are working on the project, but VGC suggests that Ubisoft Montreal - one of the company's most prominent developers - is not leading the project. The game is said to be in the "early phase of production," but there is "a small chance" that it could be announced during 2022.

It's been more than eight years since the launch of the last mainline Splinter Cell game on major platforms, Splinter Cell: Blacklist. Fans who have been waiting since then for Fisher's return had to contend with a Splinter Cell game announced exclusively for Oculus VR back in September 2020. Over the past few years, the franchise has unofficially reared its head on a handful of occasions, with Ubisoft discussing its wariness of the pressure of creating a new Splinter Cell game, and some of its lead developers duping us into believing they were working on the game.

Last summer, Fisher's Italian voice actor appeared to confirm that a game had been in development for an announcement this year, but that doesn't seem to line up with this new report. Even if Ubisoft has given the franchise the green light, however, don't expect to see it for a while, if at all - a game in the early stages of development could still be several years away, and it's very possible for unannounced projects to never see the light of day.

For the games that are a little closer to release, here's our list of new games 2021.

Update: Ubisoft is officially working on new Splinter Cell and Assassin's Creed games for virtual reality.

Both games are being chiefly developed by Ubisoft's Red Storm studio, whose previous VR projects include Star Trek: Bridge Crew and Werewolves Within. The new projects were announced along with many others - and the proper unveiling of the Oculus Quest 2 - during the Facebook Connect event today.

We don't know any specifics regarding what the Splinter Cell and Assassin's Creed games will be about, and their respective teaser images seem to be general franchise art rather than anything game-specific. In any case, it's exciting to know a new Splinter Cell game is definitely on the way - now if we could just get one for PS5 and Xbox Series X…

Original story follows

Ubisoft is reportedly set to announce new entries in two of its best-known franchises at today’s Facebook Connect event. According to Vandal, new Assassin’s Creed and Splinter Cell titles will be unveiled later today. The catch? They’re both VR games.

The report follows up on rumours that arose in summer 2019, claiming that both franchises would be coming to the Oculus Quest. While there’s been no official word on either game, Vandal’s article features quotes from developers at Red Storm Entertainment, a Ubisoft studio said to be leading development on the projects, which state that “Oculus’ next-generation hardware will allow us to bring the worlds of Assassin’s Creed and Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell to life in a new way for fans.”

With Facebook seemingly hoping to unveil its Oculus Quest 2 headset at today’s event, it would make sense that it would be hoping to have some flagship games to ship with its new VR hardware. 

But the decision to bring Splinter Cell back as a virtual reality experience may not go down well with fans. The Assassin’s Creed series has been well served in recent years, but Sam fisher has often been relegated to spin-off titles and cameos in some of Ubisoft’s other successful games, most recently Rainbow Six Siege. Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has previously suggested that developers are nervous about bringing the series back given the weight of expectation, but has also stated that it would return, albeit with new experiences, and “on different devices.” 

The Facebook Connect event kicks off at 18:00 BST/13:00 ET/10:00 PDT.

We could soon be looking at some sneaky new entries in our list of the best VR games.

Sam Fisher's Italian voice actor has seemingly confirmed the existence of a new Splinter Cell game in the works at Ubisoft, calling it a "conclusive episode" that was supposed to launch as soon as this year, before COVID-19 disrupted the publisher's release plans. 

Speaking to Multiplayer.it, Luca Ward (who plays Sam Fisher in the Italian dubs of several Splinter Cell games), confirmed his involvement with a new project in the series, and his comments suggested the title is close to completion. 

“There is this return of Splinter Cell that is supposed to be a conclusive episode, but I’m not sure about this part,” said Ward. 

“They have not yet figured out whether to do it in 2021. It was going to release in 2020, and then COVID-19 happened, and several big projects in 2020 got delayed. Others went on, like Cyberpunk 2077 on which I have almost finished working. But I am sure that Splinter Cell will return, this is a fact.”

Ubisoft recently revealed Far Cry 6 at its digital live stream earlier this month, but the closest we got to a Splinter Cell announcement was Fisher's appearance in Tom Clancy's Elite Squad. 

However, the publisher has confirmed it'll be hosting another Ubisoft Forward event later this year, so there's every chance the project could be debuted there. We'll be sure to keep you informed here on GamesRadar+ as soon as we learn more. 

For more, be sure to check out all the biggest upcoming games of 2020 on the way, or watch our latest episode of Dialogue Options below. 

GameStop appears to have added to the rumour mill yet again with another Splinter Cell goggle-related leak that suggests a new entry in the series is heading our way sometime soon. Reddit user Drunk_Uncle_Pete spotted a listing for a replica pair of Sam Fisher’s trademark goggles. The listing appears to have since been removed, but thanks to a screenshot posted on the reddit thread, we can still see the item’s description, which says a new game is “on the horizon.” 

“For the first time since the introduction of Splinter Cell in 2002, after nine top selling AAA+ titles, and with the 10th release on the horizon, this is your first chance to own Sam Fisher’s signature Ultra High Frequency Sonar Goggles,” the description reads. 

This could of course just be a mistake, but it has piqued our curiosity. The original page for the goggles showed an expected pre-order date for 1 November, 2019, which isn’t that far away. When you consider Ghost Recon Breakpoint is just around the corner and Watch Dogs Legion is on the horizon, it's quite unlikely Ubisoft would reunite us with Sam Fisher quite so soon. 

This certainly isn’t the first leak to surface about a potential future Splinter Cell entry. Last year a listing for “Splinter Cell 2018” appeared on Amazon, but nothing was confirmed at E3 2018 to cement that it was actually official. Just shy of E3 2019, some goggles also appeared on a listing for "E3 collectibles" on GameStop's site with the very same pre-order date, before being swiftly removed. 

It’s been quite some time since we joined Sam Fisher in one of Tom Clancy’s stealthy adventures. The last game to release was Splinter Cell: Blacklist on PC, Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii U back in 2013. Since then, there have been plenty of rumours about a potential sequel and fans have been eagerly awaiting confirmation. After an IGN interview with Ubisoft’s Yves Guillemot revealed why we haven’t had a new Splinter Cell for almost six years, Guillemot also recently teased Sam Fisher's return in an interview with Gamersky. The Ubisoft CEO suggested that the series could go in a new direction, and with word floating around about the new Splinter Cell potentially coming the world of VR on Oculus Rift, this could very well be what was hinted at. 

With so much chatter about the return of the series, the prospect of a new Splinter Cell game in future seems very likely. For now though, we'll just have to wait it out before we can officially get ready to see Fisher again. 

Want to know more? Read about how Splinter Cell's comeback will offer "some new type of experiences, but more on different devices."

The Splinter Cell franchise has offered some of the best stealth games of all time over its multi-decade history, but the last time we saw its spec ops protagonist Sam Fisher was in 2013's Splinter Cell: Blacklist, leaving fans eager for the series to make its long awaited comeback. 

In recent years, Ubisoft has been more transparent in justifying Splinter Cell's hiatus, explaining that it's a matter of finding the right time and team for the beloved Tom Clancy property, but - thankfully - the publisher has confirmed that a new Splinter Cell project of some sort is currently being worked on. 

Indeed, in a recent interview with Gamersky, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot teased that Sam Fisher's return to video games might not be in the form of a traditional, blockbuster release, but instead offer "some new type of experiences, but more on different devices."

"We are working a little bit on the brand today to come back at one point", continued Guillemot. "We can’t say when, because, as you know, it takes time. But each time we have to find the right experience to come back big."

That last statement about timing suggests we could well be into the era of the PS5 and Xbox Project Scarlett by the time of a new Splinter Cell experience shows up, but it sounds like the series may not even arrive on that next-generation of hardware anyway, with Guillemot's comment "different devices" implying a mobile experience of some sort. 

In other words, it's good news and bad news for Splinter Cell fans, as Ubisoft is definitely working on something Sam Fisher related right now... it just might not be the triple-A stealth experience we were hoping for. 

For more, check out the big new games of 2019 you can play right now, or watch our Release Radar video below for a guide to everything else out at the moment.

The tension of waiting for a Splinter Cell announcement at E3 2019 is more frustrating than a will-they-won't-they sitcom romance, and it's only gotten worse with the sighting of an odd new tchotchke; video game deal hunter Wario64 spotted an item called "Splinter Cell: Sam Fisher Goggles Replica" on GameStop's site under its new "E3 Collectibles" category and the listing for the goggles has since been pulled down.

Taken together with all the other weird Splinter Cell-related teases we've received in recent years, most recently a wine-fueled not-announcement from an Ubisoft creative director, you could read this an E3 leak from GameStop. The goggles may be meant to be put on sale as a commemorative collectible after Ubisoft reveals a new Splinter Cell at its big stage event. Why else put it in the "E3 Collectibles" category? The theory is complicated by the art seen on the product itself.

As Twitter user Adnor points out, the goggle box is based on promotional art from Splinter Cell: Blacklist (the last Splinter Cell to come out back in 2013) with some light image edits. If Just Play had early access to a Splinter Cell announcement, you'd think the company would use new art to go along with it. Then again, this could just be placeholder art for the product, which would give GameStop even more reason to pull the listing down.

I think it's best just to mark this maybe-leak down in the long column of "maybes" for a new Splinter Cell announcement and just keep an eye out for any glowing green goggles at the Ubisoft E3 2019 presentation.

See what else may be coming to the show with our big list of E3 2019 games, or catch everything big in games and entertainment this week with our latest Release Radar video.

UPDATE: Ubisoft PR sent out an official statement regarding Julian Gerighty's tweets, and it's a bit of rain on the parade that Splinter Cell fans are having right about now. "Julian was obviously joking as Julian likes to do. It looks like our creative directors are having fun right now. We do not have any announcements to make at this time," said Ubisoft. Hopefully Gerighty isn't 'disappeared' overnight as if he were one of Sam Fischer's targets, because Ubisoft is clearly not happy right now.

Original story:

Well, that's one way to reveal new info on a highly anticipated sequel. Julian Gerighty, a creative director at Ubisoft who recently helmed The Division 2, just posted a celebratory tweet saying that he's working on the next Splinter Cell game. Yes, that beloved stealth action franchise that's been dormant for the past six years. Ubisoft has been very coy about a new Splinter Cell game up until now, with Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot saying in April "at one point you will see something but I can’t say more than that." Now it seems like Gerighty might've spilled the beans before the reveal of Ubisoft's E3 2019 games - or he's made the kind of social media blunder that you hate to see happen.

According to the tweet, Gerighty is "working on the next #SplinterCell" with executive producer Dan Hay (a veteran of the Far Cry series) and creative director Roman Campos Oriola (For Honor). The gang seems to be enjoying their time together in Lyon, France, and wine may or may not involved in the drafting of this tweet.

Moments later, Gerighty tweeted out a message that can be condensed down to "whoops!" - but if that was the case, why not just delete his original tweet? To further complicate things, he then changed his Twitter profile picture from a Division 2 logo to the iconic three-eyed night vision goggles that Sam Fischer wears in every Splinter Cell game. 

So, is this a snafu of major proportions that has entire teams of marketing folks tearing out their hair right now, or is it all part of a planned tease? Time will tell, particularly if Gerighty's tweets stay intact over the new few hours. Then again, merely knowing that a game is being actively worked on isn't enough to spoil its big reveal these days. Just look at Borderlands 3, which Gearbox hinted at with the least subtle teaser image ever a few weeks before the loot shooter's big reveal at PAX East. Whatever the case, it sounds like more Splinter Cell is absolutely on the way, and that's reason enough to celebrate. Hopefully we'll get some definitive details (officially sanctioned by Ubisoft) at E3.

See what's happening this week in games and entertainment with our latest Release Radar:

It's been six years since the last entry in Ubisoft's acclaimed stealth franchise, Splinter Cells, and - as you might imagine - fans are starting to get impatient. We heard rumours last year of a new sequel in the works, but that came and went without an announcement, while several Easter eggs in the likes of Assassin's Creed: Odyssey and The Division 2 appear to be nothing more than cheeky winks to the wider Ubiverse. 

Now, in an interview with IGN, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has finally offered some clarity on what's going on with the Tom Clancy IP and its lead character Sam Fischer, who was last seen bemoaning the death of the Metal Gear franchise in Ghost Recon: Wildlands in 2017. 

“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,” Guillemot told IGN, explaining that the "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.”

Guillemot is, of course, referring to 2013's Splinter Cell: Blacklist, which divided fans over its action-oriented direction and cinematic style compared to the stripped back stealth focus of its predecessors. Despite expressing caution at returning to the franchise so hastily following that backlash however, Guillemot promises that Ubisoft hasn't forgotten Sam Fischer outright. 

“Now there are some things and some people that are now looking at the brand; taking care of the brand." teased the CEO. "At one point you will see something but I can’t say more than that." Could a new Splinter Cell be one of the unannounced E3 2019 games about to debut this summer? It's unlikely, given that both the rumoured Watch Dogs 3 and Beyond Good & Evil 2 are both on Ubisoft's plate right now, but don't count out the return of Mr. Sam Fischer just yet...

Could Splinter Cell become one of the big new games of 2019 on the way this year? Watch the video below to discover the upcoming titles we're most excited about right now.

Either Sam Fisher has hacked into Amazon’s mainframe and outed the existence of his next big game, or someone at the online distributor’s Canadian office is in big trouble. Not only did a listing for "Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell 2018" appear on the website, but the details suggest the game will be officially revealed at this year’s E3 convention. 

The listing has since been taken down, but a Redditor spotted the post and got the internet talking before Ubisoft could begin damage control, though it is still possible that this was just a speculative placeholder listing from Amazon, so it can't be counted as definitive confirmation of the game’s existence just yet. 

That said, previous information about the future of Splinter Cell does seem to corroborate with the theory that Ubisoft will be releasing a new installment in the stealth-action franchise this year. 

At E3 2017, Ubisoft Montreal's CEO Yannis Mallat teased a Splinter Cell revival in the near future, while reports as far back as 2016 suggested Michael Ironside - Sam Fisher’s voice actor - was back at Ubisoft to work on an undisclosed project. 

The last Splinter Cell game was 2013’s Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Blacklist, which released for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC at the tail end of that generation’s lifespan. That means a new Splinter Cell would mark the first time the franchise hits the Xbox One and PlayStation 4, and it’ll be interesting to see how Ubisoft drags Sam Fisher into the new generation for a more modern stealth-action experience. 

That said, the only platform specified by Amazon was PC, so a console version remains unconfirmed for now, though the likelihood is high, with even a Switch port seeming somewhat plausible given the publisher’s close working relationship with Nintendo. 

Ubisoft has also implied that a new Assassin’s Creed game won’t be out this year, so a Splinter Cell sequel would be the ideal title to fill that gap, making a Fall release date all the more probable. If that listing is to be believed, the return of Sam Fisher is only a few more months away...

Whether it’s slipping past that irritating colleague unseen, or negotiating your way around that potentially hell-spawned dog owned by the neighbours, there really is a little bit of spy in us all. Let’s be honest, there’s some serious empowerment to be gained from sleuthing from point to point, ghosting past every soul in sight.

Strange and potentially law-infringing though it may sound, there are few who’d deny the appeal of skulking around the local community after dark, night-vision goggles and all. Which is why video gaming’s resident spymaster, Sam Fisher, has enjoyed so many shadowy outings – with Chaos Theory being the very best of the sneaky crop.

Entry number three in PlayStation’s six-part Fisher family scrapbook saw Third Echelon’s top student tasked with the diffusion of Eastern tension. As things heated up between China, Japan and South Korea, Sam had to find those stirring up this inflammatory international pot of doom and stop them in their pesky tracks.

Yet the brilliance of Chaos Theory didn’t come from its overarching narrative, but rather from the sense of achievement at silently navigating from one point to another. Mr Fisher acrobatically tip-toed, climbed, and dangled his way across levels, hung from pipes and perched split-legged in narrow corridors above enemies to stay undetected. And when the bloodlust was too great to suppress, he stabbed his way through as well – the previous games’ knockout moves relegated to a distant memory as Sam added a combat knife to his toolbelt. Each level was massive, and those one-hit knife kills made them even better.

And today it’s this level traversal that still brings the game to life – identifying and attempting different ways to slink past an enemy becomes an art form. Do you perch high above a corridor and wait for him to saunter by? Or silently crouch in a dark recess or vent, away from searching eyes? Choices are numerous and always exciting.

Chaos Theory offers a purer breed of stealth than you’ll get from today’s stealth genre lineup. If it’s a rowdy shooting gallery of interchangeable goons you fancy, it’s probably best you look elsewhere. Any attempt to take on a few baddies toe-to-toe sees Sam minced into a fine purée long before he’s even had chance to consider that tackling three gun-toting guards was a less-than-excellent plan for survival. This is a stealth game with no delusions. Just like your least favourite primary school teacher, Chaos Theory will quickly inform you that you will be quiet, or you will be punished.

At its core Chaos Theory represents the pinnacle of the original Splinter Cell trilogy, all while typifying what’s so darn fun about a stealth game that doesn’t include the safety net of action sequences should you get rumbled. It’s a true test of patience and reserve that doesn’t suffer fools glady.

The empowerment of lingering in the darkness, silently lurking as several unsuspecting goons pass you by – using your deadly prowess in the shadows to offset their clout in open warfare – still appeals. Ultimately Chaos Theory’s biggest success is the power it grants, and the thrill of knowing that once a level begins, you’re the real predator.

Click here for more excellent Official PlayStation Magazine articles. Or maybe you want to take advantage of some great offers on magazine subscriptions? You can find them here.

So here's the million-dollar question: How do you cram one of the deepest, most graphics-intensive stealth series of all time onto the PSP? If you're Ubisoft, you learn from your mistakes, take a deep breath and push the handheld's limits as hard as you can.

Unlike the franchise's abortive N-Gage and Nintendo DS attempts, Splinter Cell Essentials loses little in translation, enabling players to do everything they can do in the console versions. NSA spook Sam Fisher is as agile as ever, able to effortlessly climb pipes, hang upside-down and pull off the mid-air splits that let him hang between narrow walls. Players will also eventually get access to Fisher's full spectrum of gadgets and weaponry, right up to the remote cameras and night-vision/infra-red goggles. Better still, they'll also get a preview of the upcoming Splinter Cell: Double Agent.

Playing out like a clip show, Essentials begins shortly after the events of Double Agent and takes players through nine key events in Fisher's past. "Key events" here mostly means "recycled missions from other Splinter Cell games," although there are a few new challenges that shed some light on Fisher's history; the first mission, for instance, has a young(ish), underpowered Fisher creeping through Colombian jungles to rescue his commanding officer in 1992. Later, players will get to try out missions from Double Agent, such as the now-infamous baldheaded prison break, executed sans gadgetry.

While the action is mostly intact, a few sacrifices have been made in the transition to the PSP. Unsurprisingly, the graphics aren't nearly as lavish as in the console versions, but Essentials looks great by PSP standards. The environments are simple but detailed, and light and shadow are still an integral part of both the game's look and its gameplay (although in the version we played, shooting out lights for unfettered sneaking was impossible).

The designers also had to take some creative steps to get around the PSP's more limited controls. Without a second analog stick, players have to hold down a button to move the camera. In fact, nearly every button has a second function; tap one to put on Fisher's goggles, for example, or hold it down to make him flatten against a wall. And if you nudge the analog stick to start sneaking, you'll keep sneaking no matter how far you push it (ditto for running).

Other trade-offs aside, one of the most important aspects of Splinter Cell will be included on Essentials: the innovative spies-vs.-mercenaries multiplayer mode. It's been pared down to a one-on-one match and can only be played with an Ad Hoc connection (meaning no Internet play), but hey, it's portable. Now if they can just fix the screen brightness (which, in our version, was so dark that it actually made the game hard to play under direct lighting), this could be worth grabbing when it lurches out of the shadows.