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2003 · Port · Ubisoft Montreal · Shooter · Strategy

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell

Nintendo console exclusivePort

2D versions of the game were released for the Game Boy Advance and N-Gage (the latter as Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Team Stealth Action), as well as the mobile phones version developed by Gameloft. A remastered high definition version of Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell was released on the PlayStation 3 in September 2011. The success of the game series spawned a series of novels written under the pseudonym David Michaels.

Released: 27 April 2003
Platforms: Game Boy Advance Legacy Mobile Device N-Gage macOS
Genres: Shooter Strategy
Developers: Ubisoft Montreal
Publishers: —
Modes: Single-player
Perspective: Side view
Themes: Action Stealth
Age ratings: ESRB T GRAC 19+PEGI 12 CLASS_IND 14

About

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell is a series of action-adventure games, the first of which was released in 2002, and their tie-in novels that were endorsed by Tom Clancy. The series follows Sam Fisher, a highly trained agent of a fictional black-ops sub-division within the NSA, dubbed "Third Echelon", as he overcomes his adversaries. The games emphasize light and darkness as gameplay elements.

There have been six main games in the series: Splinter Cell (2002), Pandora Tomorrow (2004), Chaos Theory (2005), Double Agent (2006), Conviction (2010) and Blacklist (2013). Additionally, Essentials, a PlayStation Portable exclusive, was released in 2006 and Classic Trilogy HD, a remastered compilation of the first three games, was released for the PlayStation 3 in 2011. A remake of the first game is in development. Nine tie-in novels have been released. An eight-episode audio drama, Splinter Cell: Firewall, debuted in December 2022 and an animated series, Splinter Cell: Deathwatch, premiered on Netflix in October 2025.

›Story

In April 2004, the president of Georgia is assassinated, allowing Georgian billionaire Kombayn Nikoladze to seize power with a bloodless coup d'état. In August 2004, former U.S. Navy SEAL officer and Gulf War veteran Sam Fisher is recruited by the National Security Agency to work within its newly formed division, "Third Echelon". Working with his old friend Irving Lambert, Fisher is introduced to technical expert Anna "Grim" Grimsdóttír, and field runner Vernon Wilkes Jr.

In October 2004, Fisher is dispatched to Tbilisi, Georgia to investigate the disappearance of two CIA officers. Fisher attempts to meet an informant, Thomas Gurgenidze, only to find him dying in a burning building. Gurgenidze warns that one agent's transmission mentioned proof that could cause a war. Finding the agents' corpses in a police morgue, Fisher learns that a former Spetsnaz member, Vyacheslav Grinko, removed their subdermal tracking implants. Further investigation of Grinko's license plate number using CCTV leads Third Echelon to tracks him to the Georgian defense ministry headquarters.

Keywords

assassin
spy

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Development

Although the series features his name, Tom Clancy had little to no involvement in the development of any of the installments.

According to series producer Mathieu Ferland, the original game was developed so that Ubisoft's Montreal studio could demonstrate its full potential. After Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six and Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon, "special ops was the natural next step" for Clancy-endorsed games.

Reception

By the end of 2004, sales of the Splinter Cell series totaled 9.6 million units. By October 2005, the series' global sales had surpassed 12.5 million units. By May 2008, the series had sold 19 million units. As of 2016, over 32 million units have been sold.

Releases by platformdates and regions as published

Platform	Released	Regions
Game Boy Advance	27 April 2003	North America · Europe 6 June 2003
Legacy Mobile Device	4 June 2003	North America
N-Gage	5 December 2003	Europe · North America 10 December 2003