10 Video Game Developers That Stupidly Ditched Popular Genres

10. Splinter Cell: Conviction

The Change: Slow-burn stealth to set-piece action and shooting.

Right now - despite the occasional rumour and leak confirming otherwise - it feels like we're never going to get more "proper Splinter Cell".

Literally this entire generation we've had nothing. Sam Fisher has been AWOL from even cameos or mentions outside of one Ghost Recon: Wild Lands DLC pack, and a cartoonified presence in upcoming title Elite Squad, but that's likely because his area of expertise is routed in the past.

Reading the industry tea leaves, it's pretty clear dedicated stealth games just aren't in vogue anymore, but even before the looter-shooter craze, Ubisoft were trying to pivot Splinter Cell into more of a gun-heavy cover shooter.

Enter Splinter Cell: Conviction, something that was first shown off with a godawful "reveal" where Sam Fisher was flipping tables and punching guards rather than avoiding them, it eventually morphed into a game where you'd "mark & execute" multiple targets, so you could clear entire rooms at a time.

To be fair, this was the one mechanic that worked, as contextual interrogations and auto-playing quasi-"platform" segments just felt out of place.

Ubisoft seemed to be in a hurry to make Splinter Cell into something it wasn't, and even though Blacklist brought things back into view, the franchise has been "broken" ever since.