Ubisoft Toronto is developing a remake of Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell, the stealth shooter that kicked off a series by the same name and introduced players to the character of Sam Fisher. Ubisoft announced the remake on Wednesday with a developer interview and a lengthy YouTube retrospective covering the original 2002 game.
Splinter Cell will be remade in Ubisoft’s Snowdrop engine, which the company introduced with 2016’s Tom Clancy’s The Division. In the interview, technical producer Peter Handrinos acknowledged that “enough time to miss an entire console generation” has passed since the last Splinter Cell game (2013’s Splinter Cell: Blacklist), despite the pleadings of the series’ dedicated fans.
“We’re going to take the time to explore what this means for us, for light and shadow, for animation tech, for gameplay, AI, even audio,” Handrinos said. “We want to bring [fans] something new, yet still connect them to that feeling that they had two decades ago, playing that masterpiece for the first time.”
No launch date or window was given for the Splinter Cell remake. The original game, which launched on GameCube, PlayStation 2, Windows PC, and Xbox, turns 20 in 2022.
A report in October suggested that development on a new Splinter Cell, for both PC and consoles, was underway at a Ubisoft studio other than Ubisoft Montreal, which developed the first seven titles in the series. Ubisoft did not confirm or respond to requests for comment on that report.
“With this remake, we are building a solid base for the future of Splinter Cell,” creative director Chris Auty said, without elaboration.
In September 2020, Ubisoft announced a remake of 2003’s Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time was in development at Ubisoft Pune in India. Originally due to launch in January 2021, it was delayed two months at first, and then indefinitely, to give developers additional time “to deliver a remake that feels fresh while remaining faithful to the original.”