Ubisoft Updates 12-Year-Old Splinter Cell with New Steam Achievements

Exciting news for fans of Sam Fisher: Ubisoft has not forgotten about the beloved Splinter Cell series. In a surprising move, they've added Steam Achievements to the 2013 release, Splinter Cell: Blacklist. This update, which came overnight, marks the first significant activity related to the franchise since the 2022 update on the Splinter Cell Remake, where IGN met with Ubisoft Toronto developers to discuss their design philosophy behind the game.

Ubisoft announced: "Agents, we are pleased to announce that Steam Achievements are now available for Splinter Cell: Blacklist!"

The achievements will be "retroactively earned for the accomplishments already completed in your game," but you'll need to launch the game at least once for this to happen. "Once synced, the previously unlocked Ubisoft Connect achievements will be automatically unlocked on Steam," the team added.

Interestingly, while adding achievements that can be earned retrospectively, Ubisoft chose to omit the additional 19 online achievements available on consoles. This ensures that players can still achieve 100% completion on Steam without needing to engage in online play.

The stealth-action series is poised to make a comeback with the Splinter Cell Remake. Though details are scarce, we know it will be built from scratch using the advanced Snowdrop engine. Creative director Chris Auty shared in 2022, "20 years later, we can look back at the plot, the characters, the overall story of the game [and] make some improvements — things that might not have aged particularly well. But the core of the story, the core of the experience will remain as it was in the original game."

Last month, Ubisoft formed a new subsidiary company focused on its Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six brands, backed by a €1.16 billion (approximately $1.25 billion) investment from Tencent. This move follows the announcement that Assassin's Creed Shadows has surpassed 3 million players. Ubisoft has faced several challenges recently, including high-profile flops, layoffs, studio closures, and game cancellations, putting significant pressure on the success of their new releases as their share price reached an all-time low.