This is the inside story of Splinter Cell, from a dead sci-fi shooter in Paris to the remake Ubisoft Toronto has been building since 2021, told through what the developers actually said. Why the team did not want the Tom Clancy name. What the one rule from Clancy's side was. Why "Splinter Cell" means nothing in particular. And why Michael Ironside himself thought losing the role was a good idea.
- Splinter Cell remake: announced in December 2021, 13 years after Blacklist, still no trailer
- Splinter Cell: Deathwatch, 2025: a new voice for Sam and season 2 ordered the next day
- Splinter Cell, 2002: born from a dead sci-fi game and a "Metal Gear Solid 2 killer" brief
- Pandora Tomorrow, 2004: Shanghai takes over and Spies vs. Mercs is born
- Chaos Theory, 2005: a promotion halfway through and the series' best score, 94
- Double Agent, 2006: two different games under one name
- Conviction, 2010: the "anti-Splinter Cell" with a beard that was thrown out
- Blacklist, 2013: performance capture, a new Sam and 2 million copies
- Every Splinter Cell game: year, platforms, studio and score
- How to play Splinter Cell today
The timing matters. The remake turns five in December, and there is still no trailer, no platforms and no date. Its first game director left in 2022 and came back in December 2025. In July a data miner called the project "fragile". Meanwhile Netflix already ordered a second season of the Deathwatch cartoon, and all six classic games are on Steam for the first time, because Pandora Tomorrow quietly showed up there on the day the show premiered.
Splinter Cell remake: announced in December 2021, 13 years after Blacklist, still no trailer
Ubisoft announced the remake on December 15, 2021. Ubisoft Toronto is rebuilding the first game "from the ground up" on Snowdrop, the engine behind Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. Producer Matt West promised a linear game: "we are going to keep it linear like the original games, not make it open world." Everything since then has come in drips.
- Official. Game director David Grivel left Ubisoft in October 2022. In December 2025 he wrote on LinkedIn that he was "rejoining Ubisoft Toronto as Game Director on the Splinter Cell Remake". In February 2026 the Toronto studio cut 40 roles, and Ubisoft told Kotaku the remake was not affected. In October the studio posted ads for a producer and a team lead designer on the project.
- Not cancelled. In January 2026 Ubisoft split into creative houses and cancelled six games, the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time remake among them. Splinter Cell went to the house with Ghost Recon and The Division and was not on the cancelled list.
- Leaks and rumors. In October 2024 Insider Gaming reported the codename "North" and a 2026 target. In April 2026 Tom Henderson said on the Insider Gaming podcast that it had slipped to 2027. In July data miner RogueTx posted a Q2-Q4 2027 window and said the project was in a "fragile state". None of it is confirmed by Ubisoft.
- Did not happen. The 2018 Walmart Canada listing of a new Splinter Cell, the 2024 rumor of a Blacklist remaster, the remake at Ubisoft Forward 2024, and the 2026 release itself. Splinter Cell VR for Quest, announced in 2020, was cancelled in July 2022.
![Splinter Cell Remake: Stepping Out of the Shadows | Ubisoft [NA]](https://framesgames.com/wp-content/uploads/yt-covers/HH1_ZCSf_HY.jpg.webp)
The video loads from YouTube (Google) when you press play. Privacy policyThis is the announcement video from December 2021, and it is still the most anyone has officially shown. Who will voice Sam is not announced either: Ubisoft declined to comment when GameSpot asked about Ironside. There was also an earlier dead end. Developer Nick Herman told Bloomberg in 2025 that he was hired at Ubisoft San Francisco in 2017 to work on a new Splinter Cell, which was cancelled after a few months.
Splinter Cell: Deathwatch, 2025: a new voice for Sam and season 2 ordered the next day
The video loads from YouTube (Google) when you press play. Privacy policyNetflix released all eight episodes on October 14, 2025. The show comes from Derek Kolstad, who created John Wick, and Liev Schreiber voices an older Sam Fisher. A day later Netflix renewed it. Critics on Rotten Tomatoes gave the first season 86%, viewers a cooler 66%. There is still no date for season 2.
Ironside was not offered the part, and he did not seem to mind. In 2024 he was quoted as saying "There's no way I should be playing Sam Fisher", pointing to his age, and Kolstad said the team "wanted a new sound". The live-action film is a different story: Tom Hardy was cast in 2012, and in November 2024 producer Basil Iwanyk said the project was dead.
Splinter Cell, 2002: born from a dead sci-fi game and a "Metal Gear Solid 2 killer" brief
The first game came out on Xbox on November 18, 2002, then on PC in February 2003 and on PS2 and GameCube that spring. Ubisoft Montreal made it. Metacritic has the Xbox version at 93 and PC at 91. Most of what follows comes from a big 2023 Game Informer oral history with the original team.
- It started as The Drift. A team in Paris was building a sci-fi shooter by that name, and in 1999 it moved to Ubisoft New York. Designer Martin Caya: "The Drift was the more mature sci-fi project". Splinter Cell grew out of its remains.
- The brief was to beat Metal Gear. Management literally asked for a "Metal Gear Solid 2 killer". Clint Hocking, who worked on the levels and script, is widely quoted as saying the game owes its existence to Metal Gear.
- Nobody wanted Clancy. Level designer Ed Byrne: "none of us loved Clancy. It wasn't our dream license." Clancy himself showed little interest, and his side gave the team a single rule: "never let the player kill anyone inside a church".
- Light came from Unreal. Ubisoft's own OpenGL engine could not do what the game needed most, dynamic light and shadow. Unreal could, and the whole stealth system, with its light meter and lamps to shoot out, is built on that.
- Xbox only until New Year. In November 2002 Ubisoft told GameSpot: "The deal with Microsoft is through the end of the year." By spring 2004 Ubisoft reported 6 million units sold, publisher sales to stores rather than copies in players' hands.
About the name. The studio's favorite was simply Echelon, and Game Informer writes that it "couldn't use it for legal reasons". Where "Splinter Cell" came from, nobody the magazine interviewed remembers. In the games it means a lone field agent with a remote support team from Third Echelon, a made-up NSA division. And Sam started out rougher than you remember: Ironside told Reddit in 2014 that the original Sam was "very bloody and violent", and he says he pushed to give him "some type of humanity".
![Xbox Longplay [001] Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell (EU)](https://framesgames.com/wp-content/uploads/yt-covers/WkOjUFhQauE.jpg.webp)
The video loads from YouTube (Google) when you press play. Privacy policyPandora Tomorrow, 2004: Shanghai takes over and Spies vs. Mercs is born
The sequel came out on Xbox in March 2004, and Montreal was not making it. GameSpot's first look said the series had been handed to Ubi Shanghai for the campaign and to Ubi Annecy for multiplayer. Metacritic: 93 on Xbox, 87 on PC and PS2, 78 on GameCube.
- Spies vs. Mercs. Annecy's mode is the series' most copied idea: spies play in third person with all the gadgets, mercenaries in first person with a flashlight and a gun. Two very different games on one map.
- Fast sales. By the end of March 2004, about a week after launch, Ubisoft reported 1.7 million units.
- Missing from Steam for 21 years. It was the only classic game in the series that you could not buy there, until it appeared on October 14, 2025, the day Deathwatch came out.
Chaos Theory, 2005: a promotion halfway through and the series' best score, 94
Back to Montreal. Chaos Theory reached stores in March 2005, and Metacritic still has it at the top of the series: 94 on Xbox, 92 on PC. Ubisoft reported 2.5 million units sold at launch.
- Hocking's promotion. In a 2005 interview Clint Hocking said he started as lead level designer and scriptwriter: "About a year into Chaos Theory, they made me the Creative Director."
- Amon Tobin. The electronic musician wrote his first game score here. Ninja Tune put the album out in January 2005, before the game itself.
- The knife is the new toy. Plenty of people think the sticky shocker arrived in Chaos Theory, but it was already in the 2002 game. Chaos Theory added the knife.
If you only play one, play this one. It is the best mix of stealth, level design and Sam's grumbling, and I am not going to argue about it.
Double Agent, 2006: two different games under one name
This is where it gets confusing. Ubisoft shipped two games called Double Agent in October 2006. The Xbox 360, PC and later PS3 version was built on new technology by Shanghai. The Xbox, PS2, GameCube and Wii version was made by Montreal on the old engine. Levels, mission order and some plot turns differ. Metacritic: 85 on Xbox 360, 80 on PC, while the old-gen Xbox version got 89.
- A trust meter. Sam goes undercover in a terrorist group, and every mission balances NSA trust against the terrorists' trust. That decides the ending.
- Several endings. In the 360 version three key choices plus your trust levels lead to a clean escape, an arrest followed by a prison break, or a full getaway with a bonus level.
- No sales figure. Unlike the first three games, Ubisoft never published a number for Double Agent.
Conviction, 2010: the "anti-Splinter Cell" with a beard that was thrown out
Conviction was announced in May 2007 with a long-haired, bearded Sam hiding in crowds, set for November that year. It missed the date, was reported on hold in May 2008, and came back at E3 2009 as a very different game. It finally came out in April 2010 on Xbox 360 and PC. Metacritic: 85 and 83.
- The first version. Creative director Maxime Béland told GamePro in 2010: "The original idea for Conviction was to make the anti-Splinter Cell game." There was "a lot of Bourne Identity influence", and the project "was taking an awful lot of risks".
- A new man at the top. Béland took over in early 2008, and the crowd stealth that critics had compared with Assassin's Creed was gone.
- Mark and Execute. The version that shipped is fast and aggressive: you tag targets and Sam takes them down in one move, while objectives are projected onto walls.
The video loads from YouTube (Google) when you press play. Privacy policyThis is Ubisoft's E3 trailer from June 2009, the rebooted game. Nothing of the 2007 Sam with the beard survived.
Blacklist, 2013: performance capture, a new Sam and 2 million copies
Blacklist came out in August 2013 on PC, PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii U, led by Ubisoft Toronto. Metacritic: 84 on PS3, 82 on PC and Xbox 360. It is still the last new Splinter Cell game.
- Why Ironside left. Béland told IGN they "had to go to performance capture" and needed an actor who could do Sam's stunts: "so we found Eric Johnson."
- Ironside agreed. On Reddit in 2014: "I think it's a great idea for Ubisoft". And more bluntly: "I don't think anyone wants to pay money seeing a 65 year old Sam Fisher bounce around on set."
- Cancer and a comeback. In a 2018 Ubisoft video Ironside said he had been diagnosed with cancer a few years earlier and had assumed he would die. Then he voiced Sam again in Ghost Recon Wildlands (2018) and Breakpoint (2020), and Sam turned up as the operator Zero in Rainbow Six Siege.
- Underperformed. In November 2013 Ubisoft said Blacklist had sold "around 2 million copies to date", and GameSpot ran that under the word "underperforms".
![Splinter Cell Blacklist | World Premiere Trailer [NORTH AMERICA]](https://framesgames.com/wp-content/uploads/yt-covers/wYGoFH6bWXg.jpg.webp)
The video loads from YouTube (Google) when you press play. Privacy policyThe cancer story gets told online as the reason Ironside lost the role. Neither he nor Ubisoft ever said that. Ubisoft's reason was performance capture, and Ironside's was his age.
Every Splinter Cell game: year, platforms, studio and score
| Year | Game | Platforms | Studio | Metacritic |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | Splinter Cell | Xbox, PC, PS2, GameCube | Ubisoft Montreal | 93 (Xbox), 91 (PC) |
| 2004 | Pandora Tomorrow | Xbox, PC, PS2, GameCube | Ubisoft Shanghai, multiplayer by Ubisoft Annecy | 93 (Xbox), 87 (PC) |
| 2005 | Chaos Theory | Xbox, PC, PS2, GameCube | Ubisoft Montreal | 94 (Xbox), 92 (PC) |
| 2006 | Double Agent | Xbox 360, PC, PS3; separate version for Xbox, PS2, GameCube, Wii | Ubisoft Shanghai; old-gen version by Ubisoft Montreal | 85 (X360), 80 (PC), 89 (Xbox) |
| 2010 | Conviction | Xbox 360, PC | Ubisoft Montreal | 85 (X360), 83 (PC) |
| 2013 | Blacklist | PC, PS3, Xbox 360, Wii U | Ubisoft Toronto | 84 (PS3), 82 (PC) |
| TBA | Splinter Cell remake | not announced | Ubisoft Toronto | n/a |
How to play Splinter Cell today
On PC it is easy now. All six games are on Steam: Blacklist for $19.99, the other five for $9.99 each, and the same prices apply in the Ubisoft Store. The older games can need fan fixes for widescreen and modern Windows, and Blacklist has a known habit of crashing on some systems, which is one of the most searched Splinter Cell problems. On Xbox, the original Xbox versions of the first four games and the 360 versions of Double Agent, Conviction and Blacklist run through backward compatibility.
If you are waiting for the remake, I would play the 2002 original now. It is cheap, short, and it will be fun to see what Toronto keeps. My guess is the light meter and the jokes.
Want the bigger picture? Here is every Tom Clancy game in order, all 55 of them.
Why is it called Splinter Cell?
Nobody quite knows. The team's first choice was Echelon, which they could not use for legal reasons, and none of the developers Game Informer interviewed in 2023 remembered how "Splinter Cell" was picked. In the games it means a single field agent backed by a remote team.
Are Splinter Cells real?
No. Splinter Cells and Third Echelon are invented for the games. The name Third Echelon nods to ECHELON, a real signals intelligence network, but the NSA has no field unit like Sam Fisher's.
When is the Splinter Cell remake coming out?
There is no official date or platform list. Ubisoft announced the remake in December 2021, and as of October 2026 it is still in development at Ubisoft Toronto. Insiders talk about 2027, but Ubisoft has not confirmed that.
Which Splinter Cell game is the best?
By critics' scores, Chaos Theory (2005): 94 on Xbox and 92 on PC on Metacritic, the highest in the series. It is also a good place to start, together with the 2002 original.
Is there a Splinter Cell movie?
No. A live-action film with Tom Hardy was announced in 2012, and in November 2024 its producer said it was dead. There is the Netflix animated series Splinter Cell: Deathwatch (2025) with Liev Schreiber as Sam Fisher, and a second season has been ordered.
Sources
Remake and the series today: Ubisoft, December 15, 2021, VGC, October 2022, VGC, December 2025, Game World Observer, January 22, 2026, PSU, February 2026, Push Square on the Insider Gaming report, October 2024, GamingBolt, April 2026, PSU on RogueTx, July 2026, Notebookcheck, October 2026, VGC on Splinter Cell VR, Insider Gaming on the 2017 project, PC Gamer on the Walmart listing, Splinter Cell: Deathwatch, What's on Netflix on season 2, Rotten Tomatoes, Dark Horizons on the film.
Development history: Game Informer, August 29, 2023; GameSpot, November 21, 2002; Ubisoft press releases on sales from 2004 and 2005; GameSpot on Pandora Tomorrow; GameCritics interview with Clint Hocking, 2005; GamePro, April 2010; IGN, July 11, 2013; PCGamesN on Ironside's AMA; DualShockers, April 2018; GameSpot, November 12, 2013; GamesIndustry.biz, May 2008; Metacritic pages of each game; Steam store prices on October 24, 2026.
Screenshots come from the Microsoft Store pages of Splinter Cell, Pandora Tomorrow, Chaos Theory and Double Agent and the Steam pages of Pandora Tomorrow, Conviction and Blacklist. Videos: Ubisoft and Netflix channels, and a World-of-Longplays longplay of the 2002 game.
