David Grivel, who's been listed as Game Director for the upcoming Splinter Cell Remake since November 2021, announced via LinkedIn that he's leaving Ubisoft and will therefore no longer lead development on the highly anticipated title. Grivel had been employed at Ubisoft since January 2011 and had worked on games in popular franchises, such as Assassin's Creed Unity, Far Cry 5, Far Cry 6, and Splinter Cell: Blacklist.
Official confirmation of the Splinter Cell remake occurred back in December 2021, when an Ubisoft blog post revealed the project and detailed some key aspects of the team's design philosophy. It stated the development would be helmed by Ubisoft Toronto, that it would be "rebuilt from the ground up," and that it would be made within the company's proprietary Snowdrop engine, which is also being used to develop the upcoming Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora game and its unnamed Star Wars project.
The blog post spoke on the importance of stealth gameplay; how the game needed to match the essence of the original title, where players could "be a ghost" and creatively outsmart enemies to complete tasks without anyone knowing they were even there. However, the remake would be updated visually, of course, and certain design elements would be changed in order to "match player comfort and expectations," but the post assured the title would be linear, and not open-world. This would allow the developers to be much more intentional with how the playable space was designed and have a higher "density of gameplay."
The project is set to remake the original 2002 title of the same name, which marked the beginning of the acclaimed stealth-action franchise. Following that, the series saw six other titles release, the last of which was 2013's Splinter Cell: Blacklist. Though it's unclear why the IP had been left on the shelf for nearly a decade, it could have had something to do with the huge successes that franchises like Assassin's Creed and Far Cry found around that same time, which may have shifted Ubisoft's focus.
After much fan outcry, the Splinter Cell remake finally signaled the beloved series' return. However, this recent departure doesn't spell good things for the project. Game directors leaving mid-development can often cause internal turmoil, as they had been the ones leading the game's creative vision and guiding all the different teams toward it. Fans can only hope that a solid replacement is found and that the transition is smooth so no significant delays occur.