The Splinter Cell Remake was officially announced in December 2021, with Ubisoft announcing that they were doing a remake of the 2002 title Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell. They announced that they were developing the game using the Snowdrop engine. This engine was also used to develop Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora and Star Wars Outlaws, both of which didn’t perform particularly well for Ubisoft. After rumors swirling around for a significant period of time suggesting that the Splinter Cell Remake had been canceled, new rumors have reported that the Splinter Cell Remake is continuing to progress over at Ubisoft.
Ubisoft Toronto is the one leading the remake development, and it announced the game with an interview on the Ubisoft website, alongside a video. However, that was over two years ago and there has been nothing posted by the company since the initial announcement. As reported by Insider Gaming, it’s rumored that the game is still being developed under the codename North. As stated previously, they are using the Snowdrop Engine to develop the game, whereas the previous Splinter Cell games in the franchise were developed using Unreal Engine 2 and Unreal Engine 2.5.
When the game was first announced, it was said that the game was in the “very earliest stages of development.” Compared to most games coming out these days that are remastering old games, Ubisoft has gone the route that Square Enix took with Final Fantasy 7 and has decided to do a full-on remake. As they have stated, they are building the game from the ground up, including creating new visuals, which means that the game is going to take an extensive period of time. Looking back to the example of Final Fantasy 7’s remake, there are significant gaps between each release. The remake was first released in 2020, with Rebirth being released in 2024.
Because of how drastic the changes are and how they have stated that they are taking their time to make sure the visuals are linear to the original, it’s possible that those excited for a high-fidelity remake of teenage nostalgia will take a bit longer. Some sources suggest that the Splinter Cell Remake will be released sometime in 2026, but there’s no guarantee that there will be any news by that point, depending on what other projects Ubisoft is focusing on in the meantime.
In addition to the general development process, it’s possible that the team developing the Splinter Cell Remake will be impacted by Ubisoft’s financial insecurity right now, as well as the possibility of the company going private and receiving a change in CEO as well as potential layoffs. At the moment, it’s anyone’s guess as to what is happening with the Splinter Cell Remake, but we have to trust that the statement is correct and that the game is still in active development.
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