A new Bloomberg report has revealed that Ubisoft San Francisco briefly tried to create a new Splinter Cell game, but the project was eventually turned into what became XDefiant. This story comes from former developers who said the initial idea was being worked on in 2017, a time when Ubisoft was heavily focused on games built for making money over a long period. This business strategy shift reportedly killed the team’s original vision and ultimately caused the change in direction.
According to the report, several developers who left Telltale Games and joined Ubisoft San Francisco were put on the quiet Splinter Cell project. One former team member, Herman, talked about how thrilled they were to work on the dormant series. He said, “I was so excited to be a part of this and help revitalize it, because it has been dormant for a while.” Herman added, “And we thought we could tell a great story and do something the fans would love.” The team attempted to rework their concept to fit the publisher’s growing interest in games-as-a-service, which Herman described by saying, “We tried. Let’s make a narrative GAAS game. We were trying to make that make sense, and a lot of cool prototypes were made.”
Despite all that work, the developers told Bloomberg that the project struggled to keep support from Ubisoft leadership. They explained that momentum slowed down as the publisher increasingly pushed its studios toward ideas that looked more like big competitive shooters. The Splinter Cell concept was revised a number of times before it was folded into the groundwork for XDefiant, a multiplayer arena shooter that came out in 2024 and then shut down a year later.
After the report was published, Mark Rubin, the executive producer for XDefiant at Ubisoft San Francisco, argued against some of the claims. In a public response, he said, “Saw the rumor from Bloomberg that we were working on Splinter Cell game before switching to Xdefiant. I can say that is not true.” Rubin added that when he joined the studio, a different project was already underway but was struggling. He stated, “And it was NOT a Splinter Cell game. I then canceled that one and let the team pitch any game ideas they wanted.” He mentioned that while several concepts were pitched, the studio chose an arena shooter because the team “found the fun quickly.” Rubin also commented that the studio had the freedom to pick its direction, saying, “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.”
XDefiant launched in May 2024 as a free-to-play competitive shooter featuring factions inspired by Ubisoft franchises, including Splinter Cell, Far Cry, and The Division. The game offered fast matches, objective-based modes, and cross-play support across PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and S. Though the game had an active start, its servers were officially shut down on June 3, 2025, one year after release.
The conflicting stories from former developers and the studio’s leadership leave some doubt about how closely the early project related to Splinter Cell. Even so, the report highlights the wider difficulties Ubisoft faced during its strong focus on service-driven games, a time when several internal projects reportedly had to change course.
