Ubisoft Says Tweets About New Splinter Cell Are 'Joking'

By Jonathon Dornbush

Update: Since publishing this story, a Ubisoft representative told IGN that Julian was “joking” with his tweets regarding a potential new Splinter Cell.

“Julian was obviously joking as Julian likes to do. It looks like our creative directors are having fun right now. We do not have any announcements to make at this time,” the Ubisoft representative told IGN via email.

IGN’s original report follows:

Ubisoft’s beloved Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell franchise may be returning.

Julian Gerighty, creative director of The Division 2, tweeted out “Working on the next #SplinterCell with @danhaynow and @romcamor in #Lyon.” He continued saying he “can’t wait for E3.”

via Julian Gerighty’s Twitter account

He then followed up with a second tweet, writing “Ok – plz don’t retweet. I may be in trouble.” Since his tweets, Gerighty’s Twitter image has been updated to include Splinter Cell’s iconic night-vision goggles. Gerighty further followed up highlighting messages he had been receiving from at least one Ubisoft PR person.

A new Splinter Cell is also one of the remaining games listed in 2018’s infamous Walmart Canada leak of a number of games, including Gears 5 and Borderlands 3. A separate Amazon Canada listing for Splinter Cell was also spotted in 2018.

The last Splinter Cell game Ubisoft released was 2013’s Splinter Cell: Blacklist, developed by Ubisoft Toronto, the studio most recently behind Starlink: Battle for Atlas. While we haven’t had a Splinter Cell game since then, series protagonist Sam Fisher hasn’t been completely absent from Ubisoft’s games.

In 2018, Ubisoft introduced a Splinter Cell-themed mission to Ghost Recon: Wildlands, with Michael Ironside reprising his role as Sam Fisher. Around the time of this mission’s introduction, Ironside spoke about his history playing Sam Fisher.

Should this tweet prove out to actually signal a new Splinter Cell game, Ubisoft is no stranger to leaks of some past titles that proved to be true. Be sure to read our breakdown of the most infamous video game leaks.

And while we don’t know much should this new Splinter Cell be real, we do know of another newly confirmed Tom Clancy game from Ubisoft, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakproint, which is this month’s IGN First title. You can look forward to more exclusive Breakpoint coverage on IGN throughout May, including our recent breakdown of Breakpoint’s hideout social hub.

Jonathon Dornbush is IGN’s News editor, PlayStation lead, and would like to give former IGN employee Zach Ryan a big hello! Talk to Jonathon on Twitter @jmdornbush.