It’s been six years since we last had a Splinter Cell game, and in that time, demand for a new entry in the series has grown stronger each year. Unfortunately, there’s still no news from Ubisoft regarding the future of one of their most loved franchises.
However, a listing was spotted on GameStop by Twitter user Wario64 for a pair of Sam Fisher replica Goggles. They were listed as being an “E3 Collectible” and were priced at $39.99, not exactly the cheapest. Once the listing had begun to circulate, GameStop promptly removed the goggles from their site and are now nowhere to be seen.
GameStop had these Splinter Cell Sam Fischer goggles up for preorder as an E3 collectible yesterday but for some reason delisted them today pic.twitter.com/9sFXdIrWBB
— Wario64 (@Wario64) 3 June 2019
The fact that GameStop had listed some Sam Fisher goggles out of the blue for a franchise that has not had a new game for over six years has got Splinter Cell fans excited in the hope that Ubisoft may be about to make some kind of announcement. After all, they were listed as being an E3 collectible, and it’s unclear why anyone would want to purchase them in reference to E3 unless Ubisoft had something planned regarding Splinter Cell during their conference.
There is every chance that they may have been listed by mistake or were simply some stock GameStop wanted to get rid off. Nonetheless, it’s an interesting find and could point to a Splinter Cell game being in development. It has long been rumoured that Ubisoft is working on an upcoming Splinter Cell, but as of yet, they’ve refused to comment.
Ubisoft did add a special Splinter Cell-themed mission to Ghost Recon: Wildlands last year though, which also saw Michael Ironside return as Sam Fisher. That hopefully is proof that Ubisoft has not totally forgotten or abandoned the franchise.
Not only that, but last month several Ubisoft developers put out tweets that stated that they were working on a new Splinter Cell game. Unfortunately for fans, Ubisoft confirmed that it was simply a ‘joke’, although there is speculation that there is more to the story than Ubisoft claim, with many thinking they may have been teasing fans. After all, they know gamers want to see a new Splinter Cell, so it would seem odd to even joke about working on a new Splinter Cell if there were no plans whatsoever for one.
There’s not long to go now until E3 2019, where we’ll find out from Ubisoft if there is anything to this rumour or not.