Overview
- Nick Herman, a former Ubisoft San Francisco developer, told Bloomberg the team began a new Splinter Cell in 2017 before executive priorities shifted.
- Developers attempted a “narrative GaaS” approach with multiple prototypes before Ubisoft lost interest in a story-led direction.
- The work transitioned into XDefiant, led by former Call of Duty producer Mark Rubin, which launched in 2024 and was shut down in under a year.
- Ubisoft San Francisco was later closed and staff were laid off, while several early team members had departed in 2018 to found AdHoc Studio.
- AdHoc’s episodic game Dispatch has sold over 1 million copies, and Splinter Cell continues via a Toronto-led Snowdrop remake and Netflix’s renewed series Deathwatch.