Emerging evidence seems to point toward long-neglected fans of Sam Fisher stealth-’em-ups finally getting the sequel they’ve been waiting for, but perhaps not in the format they expected. A potential new Splinter Cell game could take the form of an Oculus VR exclusive, giving players a more immersive look at the covert Tom Clancy universe than ever before, but seemingly without including owners of other virtual reality headsets or those who play games on consoles.
It’s hard to imagine that some gamers wouldn’t be frustrated by this news, however, it’s looking increasingly likely to be the case. A couple of months ago The Information published a report on Facebook’s plans to flesh out the Oculus games line-up by signing numerous exclusives, and foremost among those already said to have been acquired were Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed and Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell franchises.
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Now VRFocus is reporting that Ubisoft is working to establish a team of 50 focused on developing an “unannounced VR project,” said to be a AAA title utilizing one of the French company’s “biggest” properties. While that could point towards one of many series, from Far Cry to Ghost Recon, the aforementioned Oculus deal makes the franchise in question most likely to be either Splinter Cell or Assassin’s Creed.
A recent slipup from US video game retailer GameStop perhaps points towards Splinter Cell being the more likely of the two, however. Spotted by an eagle-eyed Reddit user, GameStop’s listing for a replica pair of Sam Fisher night-vision goggles—as seen in the Splinter Cell games—contained the following in its description: “after nine top-selling AAA+ titles, and with the 10th release on the horizon…”
Officially, there is no tenth game on the horizon. While this could be a simple error on GameStop’s end, product descriptions are often provided by the manufacturer. It’s impossible to say whether that was the case on this occasion, of course, but the evidence does appear to be mounting that a new Splinter Cell game is on the way and it may be built for Oculus VR