Ubisoft was engaged on a brand new Splinter Cell recreation that was going to embrace games-as-a-service earlier than it shifted to grow to be XDefiant, a recreation that the writer shut down not lengthy after launch. That is in keeping with Nick Herman, a developer who labored on the sport earlier than leaving to begin AdHoc Studios, the staff that simply launched the episodic recreation Dispatch to nice success. Following the publication of this report, XDefiant director Mark Rubin spoke out to react to the report and share his aspect of the story.
“I used to be so excited to be part of this and assist revitalize it, as a result of it has been dormant for some time,” Herman mentioned advised Bloomberg. “And we thought we might inform an important story and do one thing the followers would love.”
The sport was in growth “for just a few months,” Bloomberg reported, and Herman confirmed that Ubisoft wished to have it function games-as-a-service parts.
“We tried,” Herman mentioned. “Let’s make a story GAAS recreation. We had been attempting to make that make sense, and numerous cool prototypes had been made.”
The report mentioned “Ubisoft had misplaced curiosity” on this Splinter Cell recreation and shifted to pursue a mission that would try to compete with Name of Responsibility. This grew to become XDefiant, a recreation directed by former Name of Responsibility boss Mark Rubin. The sport shut down after a yr and builders had been laid off.
“We thought we had been going to have the ability to make one thing actually nice,” Herman mentioned. “And then you definitely understand that the entire stuff you care about, they do not anymore. It is a frequent factor in video games.”
Rubin, who directed XDefiant and is now not with Ubisoft, shared his aspect of the story. He mentioned it’s “not true” that Ubisoft was engaged on a Splinter Cell recreation earlier than switching to XDefiant.
“After I obtained to Ubisoft that they had been engaged on a recreation for a yr that was very formidable however was struggling to seek out the enjoyable. And it was NOT a Splinter Cell recreation. I then canceled that one and let the staff pitch any recreation concepts they wished,” he mentioned. “There have been some cool ones however I felt the scope/problem was too onerous on some concepts so we caught with an area shooter and we discovered the enjoyable rapidly. So no we did not pivot off Splinter Cell to make XDefiant. Now possibly they had been excited about engaged on Splinter Cell earlier than I obtained there however it was by no means a factor whereas I used to be there. My expertise with Ubisoft was they’re very open to regardless of the studio needs to do which is nice however I do want we might have used exterior engines.”
Noticed the rumor from Bloomberg that we had been engaged on Splinter Cell recreation earlier than switching to Xdefiant. I can say that’s not true. After I obtained to Ubisoft that they had been engaged on a recreation for a yr that was very formidable however was struggling to seek out the enjoyable. And it was NOT a Splinter…
— Mark Rubin (@PixelsofMark) November 15, 2025
Whereas that Splinter Cell recreation just isn’t coming to market, a Splinter Cell remake is now within the works. Outdoors of video games, the Splinter Cell TV present Deathwatch debuted in October on Netflix and has already been renewed for a second season. A live-action film was within the works, however apparently now not is.
