A team at Ubisoft's Toronto office have been working on a "from the ground up" remake of the original Splinter Cell game since 2021, (at the time) lead by David Grivel. Very little official information has emerged since then, bar publication of early concept art and details revealed in a short interview —most notably an adoption of the in-house Snowdrop engine. The following year, Grivel left his position as the Remake's director—a worrying portent for the project. Yesterday, video game news outlets picked up on the Far Cry and Assassin's Creed veteran's repeat return to Canada's capital city. A complicated career journey highlights the current landscape of AAA development.

In 2022, a "new adventure" had him join Ridgeline Games, as Battlefield 6's single player campaign's senior design director. Unfortunately, Electronic Arts " wound down Ridgeline as a standalone studio " at the start of 2024. Oddly, Grivel rejoined Ubisoft Toronto last May—allegedly working on a fresh concept, unrelated to the Tom Clancy Splinter Cell IP. This tenure was short-lived, as he moved onto a lead role at Worlds Untold later in the year. Unfortunately, this BioWare alumni-founded outfit faced closure by the end of 2024. Grivel announced his freshest role in a recent LinkedIn post: "I am very, VERY happy to announce that I'm rejoining Ubisoft Toronto as Game Director on the Splinter Cell Remake! A very special team and project to me." Insider Gaming claims that the game—allegedly codenamed "North"—has a tentative 2026 launch window. A "superb cinematic" was sent to the notorious leak outlet earlier this year, supposedly depicting an interaction between Sam Fisher and Irving Lambert. Currently, Ubisoft seems to be in a rocky position—two months ago, a "new" Tencent-backed creative company was unveiled.