‘Splinter Cell’ Sequel Could Finally Be Announced This Year

We've been hearing whispers about a comeback for the Splinter Cell franchise for some time, starting with rumors leaked by Walmart Canada prior to E3 about a new edition. Alas, Ubisoft didn't have anything to announce during last year's E3 showcase- but this year's may be a completely different story.

A huge report went up on GamesIndustry International today, with a number of analysts providing their predictions for this coming year. Among them was Michael Pachter, who serves as part of the Wedbush Securities team. He indicated that Ubisoft should have some big plans for the next few months, and that could include Sam Fisher's return.

As part of his predictions, Pachter noted that Ubisoft will headline 2019 with four AAA titles, and that's not including Beyond Good and Evil 2 or the upcoming Far Cry: New Dawn, which drops mid-February.

The first of the four mentions was Skull and Bones, a multiplayer pirate game that was announced last year. But Splinter Cell was close behind, followed by a third Watch Dogs game and a new entry in the Rainbow Six franchise.

Now, we're not entirely sure on Rainbow Six, mainly because the latest game in the series, the multiplayer-oriented Siege, is still doing significantly well.

But Splinter Cell is long overdue. We haven't had a new game in the series since Blacklist came out a few years ago, although there was a new mission introduced to Ghost Recon Wildlands, with Michael Ironside once again voicing over the iconic Sam Fisher.

That was already enough of a hint that the series could be coming back, but 2019 is likely to be the year it's finally confirmed.

As for Watch Dogs, it has been a little while since we've seen that series, and Watch Dogs 2 did fairly well a couple of years ago. So a new entry, complete with returning characters, would hit the spot, although we likely wouldn't see it until early 2020 unless plans change.

This year should belong to Splinter Cell, however, as Ubisoft doesn't have any holiday titles lined up- unless Skull and Bones and possibly Beyond Good and Evil 2 fill that void. It looks like we'll have to wait until the company's E3 showcase to find out more.

In the meantime, you can check out Blacklist now on Xbox One, since it's backward compatible from the Xbox 360 version. It's also available for PlayStation 3, Wii U and PC.

Want to talk about Splinter Cell more? Or just follow some general gaming wackiness? Follow me on Twitter at @TheDCD!