UPDATE: While it did seem fishy at first, Ubisoft eventually told Game Informer that it was “obviously” a joke and that the publisher does “not have any announcements to make at this time.” It could still be a cover up, given all the evidence in the original story, but it is worth mentioning.
The new Splinter Cell has been lurking in the shadows for quite some time but it may have gotten some light shed on it in the weirdest way. Instead of a trailer or some sort of official announcement post, a Ubisoft employed tweeted about it a nonchalant way before addressing that he may be in trouble for doing so.
The Division 2 Creative Director Julian Gerighty tweeted that he was “working on the next #SplinterCell” with a few other notable Ubisoft directors in Lyon, France. Lyon houses Ivory Tower, the studio behind both of The Crew games. The rest of tweet mentions that he can’t wait for E3, a vague crossover with The Crew 2, and that it’s only missing Ghost Recon and Rainbow 6.
It didn’t quite make sense but that seemed to get Gerighty in some sort of trouble, as evidenced by his next tweet telling people not to retweet it since he “may be in trouble.” He then briefly changed his Twitter avatar and header image to some classic Splinter Cell art before quickly reverting back to his previous logo from The Division 2. This was then capped off by a message from Stone Chin, Ubisoft PR associate director, telling him to “TURN [HIS] PHONE OFF.”
This is all quite odd since he likely would have deleted the tweets if they were as bad as he initially stated, especially after publicly defying orders. If this is a reveal, then this was an unorthodox way of doing it but part of it does seem like a tongue-in-cheek joke.
However, there have been plenty of rumblings surrounding a new Splinter Cell. Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot talked about a new entry last month and why we haven’t seen Sam Fisher, citing that the teams were taking time trying to ensure that it is what fans want. Former Ubisoft employee Jade Raymond has also mentioned unannounced Splinter Cell game. And it did show up in the infamous Walmart Canada leak from last year and was one of the few games that didn’t up eventually being shown.
Fisher himself even showed up in Ghost Recon Wildlands before also then having a slight cameo in Far Cry New Dawn and Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. While Ubisoft always has crossover items in its games, it does at least show that Ubisoft is still thinking of the sneaky operative. Maybe we will see more next month at E3.
