Report Says Ubisoft Canceled A Splinter Cell Game That Became XDefiant, Director Speaks Out — “That Is Not True”

Ubisoft was working on a new Splinter Cell game that was going to embrace games-as-a-service before it shifted to become XDefiant, a game that the publisher shut down not long after release. This is according to Nick Herman, a developer who worked on the game before leaving to start AdHoc Studios, the team that just launched the episodic game Dispatch to great success. Following the publication of this report, XDefiant director Mark Rubin spoke out to react to the report and share his side of the story.

“I was so excited to be a part of this and help revitalize it, because it’s been dormant for a while,” Herman said told Bloomberg. “And we thought we could tell a great story and do something the fans would love.”

The game was in development “for a few months,” Bloomberg reported, and Herman confirmed that Ubisoft wanted to have it feature games-as-a-service elements.

“We tried,” Herman said. “Let’s make a narrative GAAS game. We were trying to make that make sense, and a lot of cool prototypes were made.”

The report said “Ubisoft had lost interest” in this Splinter Cell game and shifted to pursue a project that could attempt to compete with Call of Duty. This became XDefiant, a game directed by former Call of Duty boss Mark Rubin. The game shut down after a year and developers were laid off.

“We thought we were going to be able to make something really great,” Herman said. “And then you realize that all of the things you care about, they don’t anymore. It’s a common thing in games.”

Rubin, who directed XDefiant and is no longer with Ubisoft, shared his side of the story. He said it is “not true” that Ubisoft was working on a Splinter Cell game before switching to XDefiant.

“When I got to Ubisoft they had been working on a game for a year that was very ambitious but was struggling to find the fun. And it was NOT a Splinter Cell game. I then canceled that one and let the team pitch any game ideas they wanted,” he said. “There were some cool ones but I felt the scope/difficulty was too hard on some ideas so we stuck with an arena shooter and we found the fun quickly. So no we didn’t pivot off Splinter Cell to make XDefiant. Now maybe they were thinking about working on Splinter Cell before I got there but it was never a thing while I was there. My experience with Ubisoft was they are very open to whatever the studio wants to do which is great but I do wish we could have used external engines.”

While that Splinter Cell game is not coming to market, a Splinter Cell remake is now in the works. Outside of games, the Splinter Cell TV show Deathwatch debuted in October on Netflix and has already been renewed for a second season. A live-action movie was in the works, but apparently no longer is.