New Splinter Cell in production - report

A new Splinter Cell has been put into production by Ubisoft, according to a report.

Serial leaker Tom Henderson, via VGC, has said the game will be a "mainline" entry in the series - which will likely end up being the first in over a decade.

Details are otherwise thin on the ground, production is still "early", and there's a "small chance" of an announcement in 2022.

Blacklist, the last major Splinter Cell release, was released back in 2013 for PC, PlayStation 3, Wii U and Xbox 360. It received decent reviews but sold poorly.

The game featured more action-oriented gameplay, which divided opinion. The replacement of series veteran Michael Ironside, who previously portrayed Sam Fisher, was also criticised.

Perhaps more importantly, Ubisoft had hoped Blacklist would sell at least 5m copies. It didn't, and had only shifted 2m after its first four months.

Since then, fans have repeatedly called for Splinter Cell to return - only to see the franchise reduced to guest spots in other Ubisoft games and some kind of VR version where you don Fisher's iconic goggles yourself.

Plans for a Splinter Cell movie have been vaguely floating around since at least 2011, when Tom Hardy was lined up to play Sam Fisher, while Netflix announced an anime adaptation of the franchise last year.

Back in May 2019, our Martin called on Ubisoft to do the right thing and bring Splinter Cell back properly.

"Three dots," he wrote. "Just three small green dots, formed neatly in a pyramid. Oh how I've longed for the lights to dim during a showcase and see those three dots fade into life on the screen, accompanied by a fizzing whir of improbable tech being powered up. Dear Splinter Cell, where the hell are you?"