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.
They used that Sam art in some Blacklist promotional material, but with different colors. pic.twitter.com/gAJEoNdcKtJune 3, 2019
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.
