Splinter Cell remake will update story for a ‘modern-day audience’

A Sam Fisher for the times

A new job listing on Ubisoft’s career page indicates the Splinter Cell remake will be modifying the story of the original. Specifically, they’re taking a look at updating it for a “modern day” audience.

As spotted by PSU, a scriptwriter opening for the Splinter Cell remake is open on Ubisoft’s site. Alongside working on the Snowdrop engine to rebuild a stealth classic, it looks like the writing staff will also be retooling the narrative.

Here’s an excerpt from the listing:

“Using the first Splinter Cell game as our foundation we are rewriting and updating the story for a modern-day audience. We want to keep the spirit and themes of the original game while exploring our characters and the world to make them more authentic and believable. As a Scriptwriter at Ubisoft Toronto, you will join the Narrative team and help create a cohesive and compelling narrative experience for a new audience of Splinter Cell fans.”

It’s unclear what that entails, outside of possibly incorporating modern ideas into the spy story. Maybe Sam will have to quietly distribute food deliveries along his intended route. Or perhaps he’ll get distracted during a pivotal moment when one of his tweets goes viral. We do live in really weird times.

The return of Splinter Cell

The Splinter Cell remake got confirmed at the end of 2021. Ubisoft Toronto is heading up development on the remake, using the same Snowdrop engine powering Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora.

The team’s been pretty quiet since though, outside of confirming a few things. The new-old Splinter Cell will remain linear and not open-world, so in some ways it definitely sounds like they’re adhering to the original.

Still, a “modern” story for Sam has me, at the very least, curious. Hopefully we learn some more about the Splinter Cell remake soon.