Splinter Cell Remake still in development as Ubisoft Toronto hires new staff

Ubisoft’s Splinter Cell remake hasn’t disappeared. Ubisoft Toronto is hiring for several positions tied to the project, offering a fresh sign of activity on a game we’ve heard very little about for quite some time. Current vacancies include a Producer, Team Lead Level Design and VFX Artist. Each role points to ongoing work across different parts of production, from managing development teams to building levels and creating real-time effects. Does any of this tell us when Sam Fisher returns? No. Ubisoft still hasn’t announced a release date, confirmed platforms or shown a substantial chunk of gameplay. For now, the useful bit is simpler: development continues.

Ubisoft Toronto is still recruiting for Splinter Cell

The new vacancies cover some fairly central areas of game production. The Producer position involves overseeing part of development and coordinating a multidisciplinary team. The level design role centres on the people building playable spaces, mission layouts and encounters. Ubisoft’s VFX vacancy covers environmental effects, particles and scripted visual sequences.

None of these jobs provides a reliable way to work out how far Splinter Cell has progressed. Studios recruit throughout production. A team might need extra specialists late in development, lose staff midway through a project or increase resources around one part of a game as another section nears completion. Three job listings aren’t a hidden release calendar.

They do give us something concrete, though. Ubisoft Toronto is hiring people to work on Splinter Cell, years after the publisher first announced the remake. The studio went through job cuts earlier in 2026, with around 40 positions affected. Splinter Cell remained in production through those changes.

This is a full remake, not a remaster

Ubisoft announced the Splinter Cell remake in December 2021. It isn’t taking the 2002 game, cleaning up its textures and sending it out again. Ubisoft Toronto is rebuilding the first Splinter Cell from the ground up using Snowdrop, Ubisoft’s internal engine used across several of its modern games.

The basic pitch has stayed fairly consistent. Ubisoft wants to keep the identity of the original game, with stealth built around darkness, visibility, gadgets and carefully planned movement, but rebuild its systems for modern hardware.

Splinter Cell has always treated lighting as part of play rather than decoration. Sam Fisher can hide in dark spaces, disable lights, watch patrol routes and slip through guarded areas without turning every room into a gunfight.

Snowdrop gives the development team newer technology for lighting, shadows, environments and visual effects. How much the underlying stealth simulation has changed remains unclear. Ubisoft hasn’t shown enough recent gameplay to answer many of the bigger questions.

Don’t expect an open-world Splinter Cell

One point Ubisoft has discussed is structure. The remake is based around linear missions rather than an open-world format. Levels can offer different routes, approaches and opportunities, but players won’t be dropped into one giant map filled with activities.

For Splinter Cell, this approach makes sense from a design perspective. The early games were built around controlled spaces where guard placement, lighting and routes could shape each encounter.

Ubisoft has previously discussed updating parts of the original design for modern players, including elements of the story and gameplay. Full details remain scarce. So far, there’s no complete breakdown of changes to combat, enemy AI, movement or mission design.

Splinter Cell started with Sam Fisher in 2002

The first Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell launched in 2002 and introduced Sam Fisher, an operative working for Third Echelon. Its focus on stealth helped separate it from other action games of its era. Players spent much of their time studying guards, using surveillance equipment, hiding bodies, shooting out lights and moving through areas without raising an alarm. Sam’s three-lens goggles soon became the series’ defining visual.

Ubisoft followed the original with Pandora Tomorrow in 2004 and Chaos Theory in 2005. Double Agent arrived in 2006, followed by Conviction in 2010. Splinter Cell: Blacklist came out in 2013 and remains the newest mainline entry. Ubisoft Toronto led development, mixing stealth with faster combat and giving players several ways to approach missions. Thirteen years later, there still hasn’t been another mainline Splinter Cell.

Release date remains a mystery

Ubisoft hasn’t announced when the remake will arrive. Platforms remain unconfirmed too, and there’s no recent gameplay demonstration showing how the finished project compares with the 2002 release. Rumours around release windows have circulated for years, but Ubisoft hasn’t attached a public date to the game.

The latest hiring activity doesn’t change any of this. It does give Splinter Cell fans a rare piece of concrete information after a long stretch of silence. Ubisoft Toronto is still working on the remake. People are still being hired for it. Sam Fisher’s return remains on the production schedule, but Ubisoft isn’t ready to say when we’ll get to play it.