splinter cell
A spokesperson speaks about Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell :Double Agent for Xbox 360 Live at the 2006 Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles May 10, 2006. REUTERS/Robert Galbraith

A listing for a new Splinter Cell game was recently spotted on Amazon Canada, prompting many to think that Sam Fisher will finally return with stealth skills and impressive gadgets. Amazon then removed the listing soon after.

The product page came to everyone’s attention after a Redditor posted a link directing to the said Amazon listing. The product title simply said “Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell 2018,” pertaining, of course, to the series of stealth games that began in 2002. The last instalment, “Blacklist,” came out in 2013.

Amazon has already removed the listing, but IGN was able to capture a screenshot. The product page contained no image and had been labelled Currently Unavailable.

Whispers of a new Splinter Cell title surfaced in 2016 when a NeoGAF user claimed that veteran performer Michael Ironside would return to portray his character Sam Fisher in a supposedly new game. It should be noted that Ironside had been replaced for “Blacklist.”

In a Reddit AMA in 2017, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot wrote that Splinter Cell is a brand that the company has always talked about. “It's also personally one of my favourite series,” Guillemot said. “We don't have anything specific to share at the moment but teams are working on different things, so stay tuned for more.”

IGN surmised that the product listing was only “a speculative entry by Amazon itself.” With the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2018 (E3) fast approaching, now may be the ideal time for Ubisoft to begin the hype for what could possibly be Fisher’s return.

“Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell” is an award-winning series of stealth video games available for multiple platforms. The first instalment was in development for two years before it was released for PC, Xbox, PlayStation 2, GameCube and Game Boy Advance.