Splinter Cell creative director Maxime Beland has returned to Ubisoft after his departure from the company almost a year ago. During that period, he worked at Fortnite developer Epic Games as creative director but has now made his return to Ubisoft, with plans to be a part of the French publisher’s new initiative. We recently reported that the company would be restructuring its editorial team to make games more varied after disappointing sales of The Division 2 and Ghost Recon: Breakpoint, and Beland’s return is reportedly part of this reorganization.
Beland previously worked at Ubisoft for over two decades and helped ship games like Rainbow Six: Vegas in 2006, the original Assassin’s Creed in 2007, Splinter Cell: Conviction in 2010, and Splinter Cell: Blacklist in 2013. He also served as creative director on the Shangri-La portion of Far Cry 4, as well as Far Cry Primal.
Now that Beland is back at Ubisoft, it makes the case for a new Splinter Cell secretly in the works, though it’s important to note that nothing has been confirmed. Blacklist was the last entry in the series and since then, the community has been grasping at straws and rumors, trying to find any hints that point towards the existence of a new game. One rumor alluded towards a VR game in the works for Oculus, while a replica of Sam Fisher’s famous goggles seemed to get fans riled up about the likelihood of another entry. Even a tweet from the developer itself dropped hints about the return of the beloved stealth series, but no such game has been announced.
At this point, it’s best to be cautiously optimistic about Beland’s return to Ubisoft. The director has many games under his belt besides Splinter Cell, so rejoining Ubisoft doesn’t mean Sam Fisher will be coming back.
[Source: Video Games Chronicle]
