After several potential tidbits and years of anticipation, Ubisoft announced that Sam Fisher will return – albeit not in the way that we expected (or would have chosen, given the chance). At the company’s conference ahead of E3 last week, it unveiled new mobile title Tom Clancy’s Elite Squad.
Elite Squad will let you collect and upgrade characters from series like Rainbow Six, Ghost Recon, The Division, and, of course, Splinter Cell. Once you’ve got your all-star team together, you’ll be able to battle them, in either a solo campaign or multiplayer PvP skirmishes.
It all looks fine, if you’re in to that sort of thing, but it’s far from being the new Splinter Cell game that some fans were looking out for ahead of the conference. While we were never outright promised a new title, hints had mounted up over the weeks before the conference that suggested we might be getting a little more than a mobile crossover game.
The most high-profile of those came from Julian Gerighty, creative director on The Division 2. Last month, he told players that he was “working on the next Splinter Cell,” and that he couldn’t wait for E3. While there were plenty of holes in Gerighty’s statements, it did at least ignite some curiosity ahead of the show.
Sad Fisher: There is reportedly “no Splinter Cell in production”
That followed comments from Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot that suggested that fans “will see something” regarding the franchise, and was accompanied by reports of three unannounced triple-A games to be released before April 2020.
That opened the door for more Fisher, but sadly, it wasn’t to be. Roller Champions, Watch Dogs Legion, and Rainbow Six Quarantine took the stage instead, with Gods & Monsters set to follow up later next year. There’s always E3 2020, I suppose.