"In 2013, Splinter Cell: Blacklist came out of nowhere to return the franchise to what made it so great. A combination of Xbox exclusivity and poor reviews meant before Blacklist, I hadn’t taken Sam Fisher out for a ride since he was on the PS2. The reasons for Splinter Cell’s fall from grace isn't especially difficult to nail down. In the days of Call of Duty’s dominance and development by focus groups, turning a stealth game into a shooter made sense because it was all about the mass appeal. If you alienate your core fan base in the process, it’s only a small group of basement dwellers that wouldn’t know mass appeal if it jumped down from a conveniently placed pipe and broke their necks. -- PlayStation Enthusiast
Ubisoft cancelled the new Splinter Cell project and shifted it into XDefiant, due to live service ambitions.
“However, over time, Ubisoft lost interest in the Splinter Cell game and shifted it into something designed to compete with Call of Duty.”
Omfg.
Wonder how many times this kinda thing has happened. The games we lost.
How can these people get it so wrong. People really want a new Splinter Cell. Is that because they want a game that plays like another game….. no, it’s because they want a Splinter Cell game that plays like… you guessed it, a splinter cell game. I really cannot comprehend how the people in this industry have become so utterly useless.
I hate GaaS so much. Like the whole model, the purpose around why it exists, and how they literally can’t f*cking make a game without it just adds to the mess of it.
Live service games aren’t for me, though I don’t hate on anyone who decides to try to develop one of these games. However, I really wish some developers would realise not all the games need to be live service.
While I loved the original Splinter Cell trilogy, and Double Agent was good too (everything after that less so), 20 years later it’s bad that Ubisoft hasn’t been able to produce a remake or decent sequel, but I’m even more confused that no other developer has been able to make a decent knock off / spiritual sequel to a series which was so beloved. Surely anyone who tried to Kickstarter a spiritual sequel would blow past their stretch targets in only a few days.
Exactly. Just completely remake the first 3 Splinter Cell games with new (better) textures, better lighting, etc etc. Redo some of the cut scenes. Sell them as a trilogy. Make money. It's that simple.
I can’t work out why they haven’t even done the cheap option of just porting the PS3 era HD Trilogy Collection to PS4, would surely be a licence to print money. While I’d love a proper remaster, especially to add HDR as that would really pop visually with the shadow / light detail, I would settle for being able to play on a modern system (I have a PS3 but the system itself is so sluggish, and the Sixaxis controller so poor, I would always choose a zippy modern port with a PS5 controller).
I also hate when a small but super talented studio gambles their livelyhood on a GAAA totle like remedy with firebreak and mucurysteam with spacelords, or united front with triad wars
If it is a success then I imagine those small companies are now huge companies, but so rare it will happen. What I don’t get is artistically for the development team, once they launch a live service game and it beats the odds to become successful, those devs now are purely focused on how to get more from their players, maintain engagement and find a way to slot in brand partnerships. Have to imagine they would hope the success would mean they have more freedom in future projects, instead they become more creatively unfulfilled than ever
The animated show based on the hit game series has been given a season two order from Netflix.
This show was good and i hope it shows Ubi that their still is a market for SplinterCell.
The new trailer for the game based series has been released.
.................... Man, I thought it was a game. How can Ubisoft sit on this franchise for so long????
I think they are hoping this Jumpstart the interest in the franchise and brings new people to the game.
Ubisoft has a movie and television division and they haveban Assassin’s Creed project and others coming to hopefully increase the audiences for their franchises.
They've been working on a remake for 5 years, and no updates since they said they're working on it. This and the Tomb Raider game that had a "sort of announcement with one concept art that it's in UE5" back in 2020 are really just taking longer than it needs to. Give us concept art or something. I enjoyed when devs like Bungie would give community updates on their projects and keep the community in the loop even if it's very vague like saying "our buddy Dave here is testing out this gun on this yet to be revealed monster in this secret location that we're working on".
Is this satire? Blacklist received outstanding reviews according to its 84% on metacritic and released on PC, PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii U.
Rise Of The Tomb Raider has taken a lot of its mechanics. They need to get back to stealth, and tone down the run and gun.
Aside from the wacky (lots of bugs which can turn into funny glitches) and deficient perfomance, Blacklist is an excellent game, one that rewards for many gameplay approaches.
Like, I don't even understand why Ubisoft doesn't make more games like this one. It is linear but more overwhelming, satisfactory and cohesive than your regular Assassin's Creed and Watch Dogs.
This is why I think Ubisoft should use the same model for a hypothetical new Splinter Cell, because also Blacklist is just so good. How unfortunate that the title didn't do well comercially.
Also, Xbox exclusivity? Like what? Early release? exclusive content? I even remember that the Wii U version launched on the same date as the others, lol. And for what it's worth it, the game did ok with critics.
We do need a new Splinter Cell, but in my opinion, it needs to be a modern take on the classic games. Conviction and Blacklist were solid experiences, but didn't feel like Splinter Cell to me at all.