While fans continue to wait for Ubisoft to bring back the fan favoriteSplinter Cellseries, the French company seems content in keeping protagonist Sam Fisher around for cameos. Recently, the series has been featured as post-launch content for bothGhost Recon Wildlandsas well asBreakpoint. Fisher’s iconic night vision tri-goggles could also be found inside ofAssassin’s Creed Odysseyas a cleverly placed Easter egg. According to a new report, it looks like the next stop for theSplinter Cellfranchise isn’t a new game, but as another crossover with another major Ubisoft franchise,Rainbow Six Siege.
AlthoughRainbow Six Siegestarted off very slowly following its December 2015 release, the game has exploded in popularity and has been enjoying its fifth year of post launch support. So far, the first two seasons have introduced interesting new operators for players to dig into like the most recent Attacker Ace and Defender Melusi. However, a dataminer has seemingly come across select lines of code that seemingly reveal some of the operators from the next two seasons.
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Interestingly enough, the Year 5, Season 3 operator is called Scout - ECH (Echelon / Third Echelon). Anyone familiar with theSplinter Cellfranchise will immediately recognize that organization as the top-secret NSA group that Sam Fisher, Irving Lambert, and Anna Grimsdottir were apart of. Recent games have moved Sam’s team to anew organization called Fourth Echelon, but from a classicSplinter Cellstandpoint, this operator is likely based on the stealth operatives from that franchise.
Interestingly enough, some users have called this into question as itdoesn’t line up with the roadmap Ubisoft unveiledprior to the start of Year 5. The agent in question is listed as classified but the Nighthaven logo, from the fictional in-game faction, is shown. However, in a recent interview, Product Director Roy Del Valle admitted that the logo should not have been added and things have been tweaked in terms of the narrative that don’t link specifically to Nighthaven.
In a different interview, game designer Jean-Baptiste Halle admitted that the team is open to adding operators from other Ubisoft franchises and a number of them would fit quite well. Halle event went on to hint that the next couple of operators this year may be very interesting additions for fans. This admission and the datamined information could be a sign of things to come later in 2020.
As for a dedicatedSplinter Cellgame, Ubisoft remains largely silent on the subject. It’s a question that seemingly comes up each year at E3, though with the company choosing to keep the franchise in the public eye with all of these crossovers, perhaps it’s setting something up for the future. While not a direct confirmation, it certainly helps that formerSplinter Cellcreative directorMaxime Beland returned to Ubisoftearlier in the year to join the newly created editorial team.
Rainbow Six: Siegeis out now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
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