Ubisoft was engaged on a brand new Splinter Cell sport that was going to embrace games-as-a-service earlier than it shifted to turn into XDefiant, a sport that the writer shut down not lengthy after launch. That is in response to Nick Herman, a developer who labored on the sport earlier than leaving to start out AdHoc Studios, the group that simply launched the episodic sport Dispatch to nice success. Following the publication of this report, XDefiant director Mark Rubin spoke out to react to the report and share his facet 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 stated advised Bloomberg. “And we thought we might inform an ideal story and do one thing the followers would love.”
The sport was in improvement “for a couple of months,” Bloomberg reported, and Herman confirmed that Ubisoft wished to have it function games-as-a-service parts.
“We tried,” Herman stated. “Let’s make a story GAAS sport. We had been attempting to make that make sense, and quite a lot of cool prototypes had been made.”
The report stated “Ubisoft had misplaced curiosity” on this Splinter Cell sport and shifted to pursue a mission that would try and compete with Name of Obligation. This turned XDefiant, a sport directed by former Name of Obligation boss Mark Rubin. The sport shut down after a 12 months and builders had been laid off.
“We thought we had been going to have the ability to make one thing actually nice,” Herman stated. “And you then understand that the entire belongings you care about, they do not anymore. It is a widespread factor in video games.”
Rubin, who directed XDefiant and is not with Ubisoft, shared his facet of the story. He stated it’s “not true” that Ubisoft was engaged on a Splinter Cell sport earlier than switching to XDefiant.
“After I bought to Ubisoft that they had been engaged on a sport for a 12 months that was very bold however was struggling to seek out the enjoyable. And it was NOT a Splinter Cell sport. I then canceled that one and let the group pitch any sport concepts they wished,” he stated. “There have been some cool ones however I felt the scope/issue was too laborious on some concepts so we caught with an area shooter and we discovered the enjoyable shortly. So no we did not pivot off Splinter Cell to make XDefiant. Now perhaps they had been interested by engaged on Splinter Cell earlier than I bought there nevertheless 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 sport earlier than switching to Xdefiant. I can say that’s not true. After I bought to Ubisoft that they had been engaged on a sport for a 12 months that was very bold however was struggling to seek out the enjoyable. And it was NOT a Splinter…
— Mark Rubin (@PixelsofMark) November 15, 2025
Whereas that Splinter Cell sport shouldn’t be coming to market, a Splinter Cell remake is now within the works. Exterior 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 not is.
