In a report discussing the success of their narrative game Dispatch, AdHoc Studio’s founder Nick Herman described previous projects he worked on during his time at Ubisoft. Herman described working on an entry in the Splinter Cell series, which he claimed transformed into the shooter game XDefiant. Mark Rubin, the director of XDefiant, has since pushed back against these claims. He argues that no Splinter Cell title was cancelled during the development of XDefiant.

The initial report, which came from Bloomberg, centered around the start of AdHoc Studios, the long development process behind Dispatch, and the game’s massive success. When discussing the creation of the studio, Herman describes leaving his job at Telltale Games to begin his time at Ubisoft. 

At Ubisoft, Herman says he was working on a new entry in the stealth-action series Splinter Cell. He comments, “I was so excited to be a part of this and help revitalize it, because it’s been dormant for a while…and we thought we could tell a great story… fans would love.” Herman states that Ubisoft’s desire to make games-as-a-service (GAAS), combined with growing interest in the Call of Duty franchise, led to decreased interest in the Splinter Cell project. The game then went through several changes and eventually morphed into XDefiant.

Saw the rumor from Bloomberg that we were working on Splinter Cell game before switching to Xdefiant. I can say that is not true. When I got to Ubisoft they had been working on a game for a year that was very ambitious but was struggling to find the fun. And it was NOT a Splinter…

— Mark Rubin (@PixelsofMark) November 15, 2025

However, Mark Rubin, the director behind XDefiant and a former Ubisoft employee, has since claimed that XDefiant did not originate as a Splinter Cell game. Rubin states that Ubisoft was working on an ambitious yet flawed project when he first joined the company. Said unnamed project, which he claims was unrelated to Splinter Cell, was then cancelled. According to Rubin, the cancellation gave way to brand new game ideas, with the team eventually choosing to develop the shooter XDefiant. 

In a comment under his original post, Rubin clarifies that he joined Ubisoft in 2019, while the Bloomberg report was covering events from 2017. However, he goes on to state that his “beef with the article is that there was an implied action of canceling SC to make XDefiant and that is untrue.” He admits this may not have been the intention behind the report’s initial statements, but that he wanted to “convey the real truth.”

XDefiant’s connection, or lack there-of, to the Splinter Cell series is currently unclear. However, fans of Splinter Cell can look forward to the release of Ubisoft’s upcoming remake of the original game.