Splinter Cell Remake Game Director David Grivel has left Ubisoft after 11 years | 2025 Update: He's back

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IbizaPocholo

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After more than 11 years at Ubisoft, it is now time for me to go on a new adventure. 11 years is a long time and summing it up in one post is quasi-impossible but I must say, I’ve been lucky. Lucky… | David Grivel | 30 comments

After more than 11 years at Ubisoft, it is now time for me to go on a new adventure. 11 years is a long time and summing it up in one post is quasi-impossible but I must say, I’ve been lucky. Lucky to work with so many great people over the years. Made so many friends. From Ubisoft Paris...
www.linkedin.com www.linkedin.com

After more than 11 years at Ubisoft, it is now time for me to go on a new adventure.

11 years is a long time and summing it up in one post is quasi-impossible but I must say, I've been lucky. Lucky to work with so many great people over the years. Made so many friends.

From Ubisoft Paris (Ghost Recon Future Soldier), to Ubisoft Toronto (Splinter Cell Blacklist, Assassin's Creed Unity, Far Cry Primal, 5, 6 and Splinter Cell Remake), I've had the opportunity to work on many franchises that I love as a gamer.

And so, I want to give a heartfelt thank you to everyone I worked with at Ubisoft and say "au revoir". This is not "adieu" for ours is a small industry so I'm looking forward to our paths crossing again in the future.

As for what that new adventure is? Stay tuned :)

David G
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Thanks, mods, for the title update.
 
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I wish him the best, but is it coincidence that as soon as the game gets announced and it's for "modern audiences", the game director leaves after 11 years? Now I have even less confidence in this so-called remake.
 
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game directors shouldn't have to change during development. it's the top position in the design department... if he got a better offer, Ubisoft should've matched it.
 
Yoboman said:
Haven?
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This is what I thought.

Roni said:
game directors shouldn't have to change during development. it's the top position in the design department... if he got a better offer, Ubisoft should've matched it.
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The game director directs the whole game development team, not the design department. In this case it's only a remake, won't be an issue to replace him.

Ben87fr said:
This thing's never coming out, anyway didn't they want to rewrite for "modern" audiences ? What the fuck that even means 💩
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Rhazer Fusion said:
I wish him the best, but is it coincidence that as soon as the game gets announced and it's for "modern audiences", the game director leaves after 11 years? Now I have even less confidence in this so-called remake.
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I assume they meant that the game is 20 years old so it must feel outdated in many visual and gameplay areas, so will update it to the modern standards.
 
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not like this GIF
 
I loved Splinter Cell games (especially the original trilogy), but I keep reminding myself this is modern Ubisoft focused on trying to appease teenagers and the twitter crowd (and to inject microtransactions whenever possible). Don't get excited because you'll only get disappointed.
 
DAHGAMING said:
It means the main character is no longer Sam Fisher, them/they are now Samantha Fisher.
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I would be ok with this. Ironside sounds too old to do the voice now, and it doesn't really feel like Sam Fisher without him. Maybe Sam could take the place of the commander character like Lambert.
 
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Some people put way too much weight into the role of game directors - games are made by teams of people.

Assuming they (Ubi) have good talent management initiatives, this won't make much of a difference to the end product.
 
yurinka said:
This is what I thought.


The game director directs the whole game development team, not the design department. In this case it's only a remake, won't be an issue to replace him.



I assume they meant that the game is 20 years old so it must feel outdated in many visual and gameplay areas, so will update it to the modern standards.
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I'm hoping you are correct, but I actually heard they are looking for someone new to rewrite the script to the story to bring it up to modern times which to me is suspicious and even worrying. I don't see anything wrong with Splinter Cell's story and it has a fairly diverse cast of characters already. I've heard this modern audience talk before and it seemingly leads to worst results or unnecessary changes. Look what happened with Saint's Row, DOA6, Mortal Kombat 11 or Battlefield 5 for example. We'll see what happens.
 
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Rhazer Fusion said:
I'm hoping you are correct, but I actually heard they are looking for someone new to rewrite the script to the story to bring it up to modern times which to me is suspicious and even worrying. I don't see anything wrong with Splinter Cell's story and it has a fairly diverse cast of characters already. I've heard this modern audience talk before and it seemingly leads to worst results or unnecessary changes. Look what happened with Saint's Row, DOA6, Mortal Kombat 11 or Battlefield 5 for example. We'll see what happens.
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I assume that by to adapt the game to modern audiences they only meant what we know as making a remake. To keep mostly the same story, structure and characters but to update basically visuals and mechanics to release it in modern platforms.

Ubisoft was one of the first big publishers pushing the woke stuff and introducing 'diversity' on their characters (I remember The Division 1 as one of the first ones), but I don't think they'll change Splinter Cell on that side, or at least too much.

I don't think they'll turn Sam Fisher on a fat, purple haired black lesbian granny or something like that.

Joshmyersbv said:
Then they would've worded it "modern technology" instead of "modern audiences".
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The people who buy games for the modern technology are these modern audiences. The people who buy games today.

lh032 said:
Tencent on Ubisoft acquisition:
Birdman Rubbing Hands GIF
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Tencent recently doubled their Ubisoft stocks, gave the Guillemots money to buy themselves more stocks and get control of their company and signed that won't buy more Ubisoft stocks in 8 years.

Tencent didn't want to buy Ubisoft, and in fact did help to secure Ubisoft from being bought.
 
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I just wrote a very similar letter to my employer! There's no hope for new Splinter Cells from Ubi. There is a really cool one man indie guy. He makes these bite sized $8 games where he's just going for a vibe, aesthetic and one or two mechanics. A lot of his stuff is Splinter Cell inspired. Everything he makes is great. It's not some AAA title that you'll put 80 hours into a write an essay about, but they're cool ass little appetizers for games that will never exist. He's one of my favorite devs at the moment. The stuff he's working on right now looks great. It's outfits like this


 
Honestly, how hard can a Splinter Cell game really be to make? They must have loads of frameworks and templates to work with, considering all of the games they have released prior.

And this is a remake, even, Not a new game.

Do people just not know how to complete their projects anymore? Has the world just become entirely unproductive and unable to finish tasks?
 
Splinter Cell Conviction is one of the last games in my 360 backlog I still want to complete. Played about half so far and liked its presentation style and mix of stealth and action. Noticed they removed it from Steam for a few months last year which got my hopes up for a remake, but now it's back on sale.
 
"include being built around a modern audience from the ground up, rather than a simple graphic rehaul."

Suspicious 🧐
 
StueyDuck said:
Honestly, how hard can a Splinter Cell game really be to make? They must have loads of frameworks and templates to work with, considering all of the games they have released prior.

And this is a remake, even, Not a new game.

Do people just not know how to complete their projects anymore? Has the world just become entirely unproductive and unable to finish tasks?
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Design by committee & 'consultants' (eg you-know-who) are the death of all software projects, gaming or not. Probably suffer a lot of scope creep too.

I don't work in gaming but Product Management elsewhere; you'd be shocked by the amount of time and energy people are willing to argue about minute shit that really doesn't fucking matter.

Color me not shocked that some of the best games in the past year or so were put out by dev shops (not counting outsourced VAs or localization) of less than 50 people:

  • Hades I & II (~25 devs)
  • Balatro (1 guy)
  • Ball x Pit (basically 1 guy)
  • Clair Obscur (~30ish)
  • Blue Prince (~10)
  • Dispatch (~30)
  • HK: Silksong (3)
  • Monster Train 1 & 2 (~20)
 
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Its been in dev since 2021 why do we even need this guy now heading into 2026? This project SHOULD be just about wrapped up. WTF have they been doing over there this whole time?
 
phant0m said:
Design by committee & 'consultants' (eg you-know-who) are the death of all software projects, gaming or not. Probably suffer a lot of scope creep too.

I don't work in gaming but Product Management elsewhere; you'd be shocked by the amount of time and energy people are willing to argue about minute shit that really doesn't fucking matter.

Color me not shocked that some of the best games in the past year or so were put out by dev shops (not counting outsourced VAs or localization) of less than 50 people:

  • Hades I & II (~25 devs)
  • Balatro (1 guy)
  • Ball x Pit (basically 1 guy)
  • Clair Obscur (~30ish)
  • Blue Prince (~10)
  • Dispatch (~30)
  • HK: Silksong (3)
  • Monster Train 1 & 2 (~20)
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Your not wrong about design by committee and consultants.

Im also not a game dev but I am in software dev so I know the feeling of having 100 meetings a day that achieve nothing and so on

But ive never had a project completely implode in the way these games do and it doesnt always feel like bean counters causing the issues, take everwild, absolute shit show and most the people working on the project didnt even know what it was.
 
corgiix3 said:
Its been in dev since 2021 why do we even need this guy now heading into 2026? This project SHOULD be just about wrapped up. WTF have they been doing over there this whole time?
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It's probably pretty much done they just need someone to curtail everything in to a cohesive game. I do have faith they can get it done. Love me some Splinter Cell. The games are fantastic and were leagues beyond much of the "stealth" scene back when. Still are, tbh


video by LightsBreak

edit: IbizaPocholo IbizaPocholo Is it possible to update thread title per the director's return?
 
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Solarstrike said:
It's probably pretty much done they just need someone to curtail everything in to a cohesive game. I do have faith they can get it done. Love me some Splinter Cell. The games are fantastic and were leagues beyond much of the "stealth" scene back when. Still are, tbh


video by LightsBreak

edit: IbizaPocholo IbizaPocholo Is it possible to update thread title per the director's return?
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I hope they retain Spy Vs Mercs. Waiting a decade plus for what might be the last splinter cell ever would suck if there isnt much replay value.
 
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