Splinter Cell fans have had it rough in the past few years. Despite being one of Ubisoft's flagship franchises for a long time, there has been no new Splinter Cell game since 2013's Blacklist and there are none in sight, either.
Even E3 2019 didn't bring any good news for those who yearn to wear the tight mimetic suit of protagonist Sam Fisher once again. Admittedly, we didn't have any hope to see Splinter Cell there after Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said the following to IGN just two months before E3.
When you create a [new entry in a series] you have to make sure you will come with something that will be different enough from what you did before. Last time we did a Splinter Cell, we had lots of pressure from all the fans saying, ‘Don’t change it, don’t do this, don’t do that.’ So, some of the teams were more anxious to work on the brand.
Now there are some things and some people that are now looking at Splinter Cell; taking care of the brand. At one point you will see something, but I can’t say more than that. Also, because of Assassin’s Creed and all the other brands taking off, people wanted to work on those brands more. So, we have to follow what they like to do.
Now, Yves Guillemot himself has spoken once again of the matter in a video interview conducted with Chinese publication GamerSky during ChinaJoy 2019.
On Splinter Cell there will be some new type of experiments, but more on different devices. We are working a lot on the brand today to come back at one point. We can't say when because as you know it takes time, but we have to find which time is right to come back big.
One of the experiments hinted by Guillemot is probably the rumored VR Splinter Cell game supposedly picked up by Oculus an exclusive for the Rift and Quest devices. Still, to see a full-fledged new franchise entry we'll probably have to wait for the next-generation of hardware at this point.
