No Stealth in Splinter Cell Delay

Ubisoft financials reveal Double Agent wasn't actually ready for a March release after all.

January 26, 2006 - In its recent quarterly earnings, French publisher Ubisoft announced today Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Double Agent was delayed five months, from March to September 2006.

The San Francisco branch of the giant publisher would not explain precise reasons behind the extensive setback, but provided this pre-written response: "Ubisoft is extending the launch of Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Double Agent in order to deliver the highest quality gaming experience. The additional development time will allow for a simultaneous worldwide launch on all platforms and will allow Ubisoft's development teams to push the technical boundaries on each platform.

"Ubisoft is confident that Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Double Agent will revolutionize and reinvent the spy action genre by introducing an unprecedented double agent concept and an entirely new breed of game play that adds an exciting new dimension to the gaming experience."

Splinter Cell Double Agent is currently slated for release on Xbox, Xbox 360, PlayStation, PC, and GameCube -- but not PlayStation 3. When asked, Ubisoft refrained from commenting on a PS3 version, but the delay points to a potential future announcement and another reason for the push-back, given Sony's fall PS3 release. Ubisoft also may have been playing sneaky tricks with its release schedule. A five-month delay on a franchise title of this significance doesn't usually happen by mistake or happenstance. Ubisoft officials said it could neither confirm nor deny the speculation.

We'll have more on Splinter Cell Double Agent soon