Splinter Cell delayed for "polish" News • News • Eurogamer.net

News PC Xbox 360

But for how long Ubisoft can't say.

Ubisoft has told Eurogamer that Splinter Cell: Conviction was delayed to add "a bit more polish", and not because Q1 2010 is unconventionally bursting with big-name releases.

"The game looks brilliant, but we want it to be awesome," a spokesperson added.

The move was made overnight, when Sam Fisher's latest romp went from a confirmed 26th February release into the murky waters of FY2010, which begins 1st April 2010.

Ubisoft could not tell Eurogamer how long said polishing will take.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

Comments (60) Latest comment 2 years ago

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JahB #1 2 years ago

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"The game looks brilliant, but we want it to be awesome,"

somebody needs a thesaurus.
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menage #2 2 years ago

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maybe I will pick it up then, releasing it now would have meant a no sale with all the other stuff coming out.
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tubaros #3 2 years ago

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Why does it need more polish? Is it set in Poland then?
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cianchristopher #4 2 years ago

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/wonders how he can work in a dig at Sony in this comment.
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LHH #5 2 years ago

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I thought all the poles were over here taking our jobs
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DonnieDarko333 #6 2 years ago

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How much polish can this game need? must have loads of problems if it's been delayed this much!
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Merdalor #7 2 years ago

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Maybe the story is set in Scotland and they meant to say "police"?
As in "Sham Fisher, thish ish the polish! Shtand down or shuffer the conshequenshes!"
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Ignatius_Cheese #8 2 years ago

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Good bit of "refocusing", Ubi ;o)
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jag10 #9 2 years ago

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bullshit! it's being delayed on purpose. to increase sales of this game and a certain other game.
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DoctorZoidberg #10 2 years ago

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You can't please some people.

"I hate it when games are released with issues" then when they delay games to fix issues "I hate it when games get delayed to be finished properly".
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Hunam #11 2 years ago

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The frame rate in some of the videos was less than stellar, if they are fixing that then good on them.
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Yossarian #12 2 years ago

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Blood and violence! User-friendly stealth action! No Spies versus Mercs! And we're going to delay it yet again!

No, really, I don't care anymore.
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Ninja_Tino #13 2 years ago

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In my book, brilliant is better than awesome.
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seasidebaz #14 2 years ago

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Well, they don't want to be Russian it to market after all.
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FightingMongoose #15 2 years ago

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Maybe the story is set in Scotland and they meant to say "police"?
As in "Sham Fisher, thish ish the polish! Shtand down or shuffer the conshequenshes!"

D
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MadCaddy13 #16 2 years ago

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For gods sake!!!!!!!!!!!
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Skooch #17 2 years ago

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This will have more to do with their financial year than anything else.
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Kazzahdrane #18 2 years ago

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Maybe the story is set in Scotland and they meant to say "police"?
As in "Sham Fisher, thish ish the polish! Shtand down or shuffer the conshequenshes!"

I for one would love to play Shplinter Shell: Convicshon.
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NorUraeus #19 2 years ago

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Yep, some extra time for polish really helped Haze stand out
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asphaltcowboy #20 2 years ago

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As sad as I am about it being delayed... I really cannot wait for this, so go forth and release it at it's most awesomenessest!
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Murton #21 2 years ago

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In an age where games are shipping with more issues than ever before I would welcome any decision to delay a game to get it working over releasing it despite issues. I must however question the truth of the Ubisoft statement, this particular delay comes too close to the original release date to be a purely "extra polish needed" decision, either Ubi want to release in quieter spot on the calendar and avoid this quarters massive lineup or something in the game is terribly broken, enough to give it a chance at failing the MS QA checks and bar its release.

Hopefully the delay won't be too long for the guys who were looking forward to this and the build quality will prove the extra time well spent.

Edited by 1 at 14/01/10 @ 11:38
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andijames #22 2 years ago

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Why do people automatically think the game needs more work when it gets delayed? As a designer i can see why people would like more time to add more 'shine' to something. Honestly a couple of month's difference isn't going to give them enough time to change anything major and it's not like they're trying to get a title working well on all platforms as it's 360 only!

Extra polish can only be a good thing but yes delays are annoying. Especially when it's quite late to the party compared to when it was originally scheduled to be out.
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coolbritannia #23 2 years ago

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Is Fisher now a guest driver in GT5?
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Deckard1 #24 2 years ago

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fair enough, the framrate looked a little off in the last multiplayer video I seen, hopefully the get it sorted because other than that the game looks amazing
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Monkey_Puncher #25 2 years ago

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*face palm*

Not again
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cianchristopher #26 2 years ago

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It 's not looking good - seems like a rash decision to delay this just six weeks before the supposed launch! It's not like Ubisoft just found out yesterday of the competition that it'dl be facing in February/March...

So, I dunno what to make of it - but it's gone from a must-buy to a wait-and-see for me...

And I wouldn't expect it in April, either. I'd say a September/October release is on the cards...
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Britesparc Verified Creative, ITV #27 2 years ago

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TBH, if it's released later I'm more likely to buy it - no way I'm getting anything in between the releases of Mass Effect and Crackdown (not even BioShock! Too many games, not enough time/money!).

But my whole "financial year" theory has been blown out of the water. Hopefully this isn't an attempt to polish a turd - the game looked spiffing (he said, trying to avoid the words "brilliant" or "awesome".
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dingo75 #28 2 years ago

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Did they finally realize that the "stealth" part should be in a "Splinter Cell" instead of allowing the brain-deads to go in guns blazing this time?
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dudefella #29 2 years ago

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This game is becoming one of the most delayed games of the last 5 years. But I do hope they fix up the framerate because it looked godawful in the recent co-op trailer.
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Douche #30 2 years ago

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Fuck sake
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autogunner #31 2 years ago

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its just so they can show growth in all financial quarters, bit gay if you ask me i was looking forward to playing this after exams.
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iwantmynameuk #32 2 years ago

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maybe microsoft havent got anything else to go up against GT5? I just ordered the collectors edition in anticipation of feb release dammit
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Frumper #33 2 years ago

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"Splinter Cell Forever"!
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El-Dev #34 2 years ago

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From some of what I've seen of this game it looks more like Rainbow Six Vegas than a stealth game.
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andywilkie35 #35 2 years ago

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My first reaction was "for fuck sake" but I think it was originally scheduled to come out the same day as Heavy Rain which probably means I wouldn't have played it straight away anyway...

Looking forward to it when it eventually releases
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Nylz #36 2 years ago

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Enough games to fill the gap. No worries.
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LiveForever #37 2 years ago

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They should add a decent multiplayer, maybe S v M, otherwise this will end up on the trade shelf.
And release the demo already Ubi.
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bodypopper #38 2 years ago

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Considering the amount of whining that goes on these days about games not having split screen co-op, I'm guessing this might be one of the features that might need polishing.
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meatpanda #39 2 years ago

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As long as the game is outstanding, it's worth the wait. There are so many potentially brilliant titles coming out this year that we're spoilt anyway!
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glaeken #40 2 years ago

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They must be running low on polish the times this one has had to be delayed for extra polish.

It certainly is going to be immensely shinny if it ever does get released.
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jambo74 #41 2 years ago

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Sam cut himself shaving again then....
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Markusdragon #42 2 years ago

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And so the second release date exodus begins!
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Salaminizer #43 2 years ago

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they're letting Sam Fisher age so they can add more jokes about it.
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Jayke #44 2 years ago

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I like Ubisoft but this is suspicous, I think the problem might be smething like unplayable screen tear. all the videos tear like a sob
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ChthonicEcho #45 2 years ago

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They were doing this 'polishing' bit for over a year now, and they shower us with previews and videos, only to announce a delay this close to the release? I'm starting to despise Ubisoft more than I already do, and that is a pretty deep hole.

Edited by 1 at 14/01/10 @ 14:58
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Hindle #46 2 years ago

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Sounds weird the game was looking done in the recent videos ive seen.
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Shinetop #47 2 years ago

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Seeing how this is apparently not a stealth game anymore, I can't really give a toss when it'll get released.
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Negotiator #48 2 years ago

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Good on them, how many games have been released with bugs, frame rate problems etc. If giving the dev more time makes conviction a better game, then so be it.
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kangarootoo #49 2 years ago

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I don't much mind. This whole "waiting for a game" thing is a careation of our imaginations really. There is ALWAYS something else to do or play whilst we wait for a game to be released, and if the release date had been previously set for August none of us would be batting an eyelid.
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seanthejackal #50 2 years ago

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Splinter Cell: Casual
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richardiox #51 2 years ago

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Like my mum always says, "you can't polish a turd"
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braydee89 #52 2 years ago

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As long as this comes out in the summer, rather than around the launch of Reach then I'll be happy.
q1 Mass effect
q2 I'll still be playing mass effect and maybe some fifa
q3 splinter cell
q4 Halo Reach

sounds like a good year to me.
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Darren #53 2 years ago

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Personally I think it's good news if it been delayed again because the footage I saw from a month or so looked very ropey to me. Better that they release a polished product than one that is buggy and requires numerous patches to fix issues. It's not like 2010 is going to be short of games.
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Vin #54 2 years ago

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Rage Rage RAGE.
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coolbritannia #55 2 years ago

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Is there really no spies versus mercs?
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LiveForever #56 2 years ago

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Is there no spy vs mers SERIOUSLY? unfortunately the answer is yes, ubisoft producers are not gamers and they have no clue what people want even if you tell them, if they were gamers they would not do this to the fans, whole separate team to do multiplayer vs stupid AI bots, that is not multiplayer, Patrick Redding 'the director' has no clue. Its all about engines and not gameplay with ubi at the moment, and updating the look of their logo. Hopefully future GRAW will have some sort of decent multiplayer.

All Shine, No Substance?
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local_celebrity #57 2 years ago

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Lazy workshy cunts. The pyramids took less time than this.
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felastica #58 2 years ago

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Does this game star Duke Nukem now? Is that why its taking so long?
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ReaperOscuro #59 2 years ago

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If u believe tat statement, u believe the moon is made of cheese.
While any game can always do with some polish (LOL did ur mum really tell u tat btw?!?), i still smell the financial rat.

Chomp chomp.
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kongzi #60 2 years ago

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Ubisoft seems really unsure of itself, these last couple of months.
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