New Splinter Cell may be another Ubisoft games-as-a-platform title

Ubisoft's new Splinter Cell game will be an open-world game with live services and monetization, reports indicate.

The beloved Splinter Cell franchise may be the latest IP to get transformed by Ubisoft's digital-first business model. Sources have told Tom Henderson that the new Splinter Cell game will now have an open-world evolution that's "a more stealthy version of Assassin's Creed." This matches up with the company's current focus, which sees all of its franchise being molded into engagement-driven games with live services, monetization, and long-term play.

It's also possible that the Splinter Cell game could fall into the emerging games-as-a-platform model. This particular model was pioneered by MMORPGs over the last decade and has proven to be the natural evolution for digital-based games.

Activision-Blizzard has championed the movement with its innovative Warzone gametype, which has connected all separate mainline Call of Duty games since 2018. Now publishers want to release one singular game and treat sequels as add-ons, DLC, and expansions instead of sequels--this is how Blizzard has made billions every year without actually releasing new games.

More recent examples include Halo Infinite, which is the last numbered Halo game. 343i refers to Infinite as "Halo-as-a-service." All future "games" will be treated as content released within Infinite instead of separate games.

Ubisoft wants to do this with Assassin's Creed in a new game called Assassin's Creed Infinity.

We postulated this is a never-ending Assassin's Creed with tons of post-launch content; instead of an actual game, Infinity would be a portal or ecosystem that hosts multiple games' worth of content. The same could happen with Splinter Cell, Rainbow Six, Far Cry, and other Tom Clancy games.