Not too long ago, Ubisoft was working on a brand recent Splinter Cell game. However, according to a recent report, it evolved into XDefiant over time.
This comes from A Bloomberg story about AdHoc Studiocreators of the workplace superhero comedy game Dispatch, which chronicles their journey from Telltale Games to Ubisoft to their own indie studio. AdHoc executives began their partnership at Telltale Games, working on Tales from the Borderlands before Nick Herma, Dennis Lenart and Pierre Shorette left for Ubisoft in 2017. There, the trio worked on a recent installment of the Splinter Cell series.
“I was very excited to be a part of this project and help bring it to life because it had been dormant for a while,” Herman told Bloomberg. “We thought we could tell a great story and do something the fans would love.”
However, they explain that Ubisoft began to heavily promote games as a service in its portfolio, and Splinter Cell didn’t quite fit that mold. Over time, the Splinter Cell project evolved into what would later become xDefiant, a free-to-play first-person shooter that had middling reviews last year and shut down last June, taking two entire studios with it.
The trio eventually reunited with Michael Choung, another former Telltale colleague, to found AdHoc Studio in 2018. While working on a version of what would eventually become Dispatch, they also collaborated as co-writers on The Wolf Among Us 2, only to withdraw from the project after writing an 800-page script due to frustration with the lack of imaginative control. This project we last heard about seemed equally ill-fated.
Ultimately, however, the group managed to create the final version of Dispatch with the support of both the publisher and several famed actors, thanks to casting director Linda Lamontagne. A last-minute deal with Critical Role for another game helped them get to the finish line.
As for Splinter Cell, fans are still left without a recent game, with the last recent Splinter Cell title being Blacklisted way back in 2013. A remake of the original 2002 game is reportedly in the works, but Ubisoft has been so peaceful about it since 2022 that it’s tough to say whether it will ever come out fully.
Meanwhile, shipping is excellent. We’re working on a review after each episode, but for now you can read our thoughts on the first two episodes here, with our reviewer saying they’re “totally fascinated by this world and I can’t wait to get entangled in Robert’s fractured personal life.”
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Her posts can be found on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Have a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
