It has been more than five years since the release of Splinter Cell: Blacklist, so fans are understandably eager to find out what's next for Sam Fisher. In a new interview, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot offered an explanation for what's taking so long to bring the franchise back.

He told IGN that Ubisoft won't bring back the franchise until it can do something novel with it. Not only that, but some of Ubisoft's development teams became too anxious to want to work on a new Splinter Cell game due to pressure from fans, Guillemot said. And third, Ubisoft's other big franchises like Assassin's Creed are "taking off," which has led the company to focus on them instead of Splinter Cell.

"When you create a game, you have to make sure you will come with something that will be different enough from what you did before," Guillemot said. "Last time we did a Splinter Cell, we had lots of pressure from all the fans saying, 'Don't change it; don't do this; don't do that.' So some of the teams were more anxious to work on the brand.

"Now there are some things and some people that are now looking at the brand; taking care of the brand. At one point you will see something but I can't say more than that," he added. "Also because of Assassin's Creed and all the other brands taking off, people wanted to work on those brands more. so we have to follow what they like to do."

Ghost Recon: Wildlands contained a very strong tease for Splinter Cell, with Sam Fisher voice actor Michael Ironside doing the voice in an Easter Egg. A Splinter Cell Easter Egg was also spotted in Ubisoft's 2019 game Far Cry: New Dawn.

Further fuelling the rumors about a new Splinter Cell is the news that original Splinter Cell designer Clint Hocking has returned to Ubisoft where he is working on "unannounced projects." Guillemot was asked if Ubisoft might bring back Splinter Cell for the next generation of consoles, which are apparently coming soon, but Guillemot wouldn't be drawn into that conversation.

If Ubisoft does have a Splinter Cell announcement to make, it could happen during the company's E3 2019 briefing in June, but nothing is confirmed at this stage.

Back in 2012 it was reported that Tom Hardy would star as Sam Fisher in a Splinter Cell movie, but whether or not that's still the case is unknown.

What would you like to see from a new Splinter Cell game? Let us know in the comments below!