A Splinter Cell remake has officially been announced

The game is in development at Ubisoft Toronto

Ubisoft has officially confirmed that it’s working on a remake of the original Splinter Cell, which was released in 2002.

The project is being led by Ubisoft Toronto and “will draw from the rich canvas of the brand”, it said in an announcement blog.

The game is being rebuilt with the Snowdrop engine—which also powers The Division and is being used to build Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora and Ubisoft’s upcoming Star Wars game—”to deliver new-generation visuals and gameplay, and the dynamic lighting and shadows the series is known for”.

Producer Matt West said: “Although we’re still in the very earliest stages of development, what we’re trying to do is make sure the spirit of the early games remains intact, in all of the ways that gave early Splinter Cell its identity.

“So, as we’re building it from the ground up, we’re going to update it visually, as well as some of the design elements to match player comfort and expectations, and we are going to keep it linear like the original games, not make it open world.”

He added: “One of the things that, from my point of view is really exciting about this project, is that the last couple of games all of us have worked on have been really big worlds. What that means is that the economy of decisions is very spread out, whereas what I love about a Splinter Cell map is every square inch represents intentionality.

“Every square inch is part of a choice, or directly offers a choice, or has a direct ramification. That density of gameplay is at the forefront in Splinter Cell, and that’s going to be really, really important for us. The gameplay experience we are targeting is directly tied to what we want players to feel, to capture the essence back when we were all playing the original games.”

VGC exclusively revealed in October that Ubisoft had greenlit what will be its first mainline Splinter Cell game in a decade.

Development sources told us that the title had been put into production as a means of winning back fans frustrated by recent efforts to revive the franchise in the mobile and VR spaces.

Following VGC’s report, it was claimed that Ubisoft could take inspiration from IO Interactive‘s Hitman franchise for its next Splinter Cell game.