Splinter Cell Was Not Canceled for XDefiant, and the Remake Looks Excellent

A new wave of discussion has erupted online regarding the fate of Splinter Cell. The catalyst was a recent report by Jason Schreier of Bloomberg, which claimed that Ubisoft had been working on a new entry in the series several years ago, but the project never saw the light of day. According to the report, it was supposedly canceled in favor of XDefiant — but it seems that’s not quite accurate.

Mark Rubin, the former executive producer of XDefiant, responded to these claims. He denied the rumors that his team had been developing a Splinter Cell game and was then forced to “switch” to working on the arena shooter.

Rubin explains that when he joined Ubisoft in 2019, the studio indeed had a new game in development for about a year. However, according to him, the development wasn’t going well, which ultimately led to the project being shut down. He emphasizes — and this is the key point — it wasn’t Splinter Cell:

Rubin also noted that Bloomberg’s claim that Splinter Cell was “replaced” by XDefiant does not reflect the truth. He acknowledged that discussions about Splinter Cell might have happened before he joined, but during his tenure, no such game was in development.

Ubisoft hasn’t released anything new in the franchise for years, but the series isn’t dead. The company is officially working on a remake of the original game, which early reports suggest could release in 2026. There is currently no concrete information on the project’s progress — the studio has been extremely quiet.

However, insider Tom Henderson seems to know more. Responding to Rubin’s statement, he said that the Splinter Cell remake is in good shape:

Still, the project recently lost its lead developer. Ubisoft, meanwhile, continues to keep the franchise alive partly through animated projects — you can read our review of the recent Splinter Cell series here.