Speaking to videogaming247, Splinter Cell: Conviction community development manager, Chris Easton, has hinted at some changes to Ubisoft Montreal’s stealth action title. “The gameplay’s evolved a lot but the visual direction is simply much better than what you’ve seen,” Easton said.

Although it was rumored to have been cancelled after the game failed to make an appearance at Ubidays in May of this year, Easton assures us that this is definitely not the case. “Splinter Cell: Conviction is certainly not canned, despite what the Internet rumour mill says,” he added. Ubisoft’s sixth installment in the Splinter Cell series was last shown at Ubidays back in May 2007. Even though it had been shown in playable form, it was absent from both E3 and GDC 08 earlier in the year.

Other previous rumors stated that that the game had gone “back to the drawing board”. However, Easton stated that it “won’t look significantly different to what you’ve seen before”. This latest update, coupled with a reassuring message on the Ubisoft forums, is enough to convince me that we’ll be seeing more of Splinter Cell: Conviction some time next year.