Ubisoft owns the rights to several Tom Clancy-branded franchises, but only a few of these - like Rainbow Six - have sequels in the works.
Tom Clancy the author is long gone, but Ubisoft games bearing his branding are still very much alive - shorthand for the style of military fiction he wrote, and indeed there was a Clancy-written Rainbow Six novel in 1998. So what Clancy-associated franchises does Ubisoft own the rights to? And more importantly, which games are actually in development?
To establish context, Rainbow Six is the best-known property these days thanks to Rainbow Six: Siege, which is one of the most popular online shooters on the planet. It's fairly removed from the realism of the original Rainbow Six games, and Ubisoft seems poised to continue that trend with Rainbow Six: Quarantine, now due by the end of September 2021 under the new name Rainbow Six: parasite. The title is based off of Rainbow Six: Siege's Outbreak mode, and will pit squads against some form of alien entity.
The Ghost Recon series has likewise evolved from realism into fantasy, specifically an explosive open-world sandbox. The most recent release was 2019's Ghost Recon: Breakpoint, which is slated to get more DLC throughout 2021, despite relatively lackluster response to the game at launch. There's no hint of a full-fledged sequel at this point, and anything new in that series would likely ship in 2022 at the earliest.
Next to Rainbow Six, Splinter Cell is perhaps Ubisoft's second-most popular Clancy franchise - there's even a Netflix anime series in production. The last major game, however, was 2013's Splinter Cell: Blacklist, which has left PC and console players wondering when - if ever - there might be more in the stealth series. In September 2020 Ubisoft announced a collaboration on an Oculus VR game, but with no real details, and, though growing, the Oculus user base is still comparatively small.
One line unlikely to get a sequel in the near future is The Division. Apart from its pandemic theme hitting too close to home for many players, The Division 2 is still receiving fresh content, including a new game mode planned for sometime in 2021. It could take a dramatic change of setting to rationalize a new release, especially since, as a "service" game, The Division 2 doesn't have to end.
There are other Clancy properties in Ubisoft's stable, such as the real-time strategy title EndWar and the flight combat series H.A.W.X., but Ubisoft has largely abandoned these. Only EndWar is available on the publisher's own store. There's also no sign of the company revisiting pre-Ubi stories like The Hunt for Red October or Without Remorse, although the latter has a movie adaptation soon to hit Amazon Prime Video. Those would likely require new rights deals, which Ubisoft probably isn't in a rush to make.
