Splinter Cell heading back to PS3?

April’s upcoming Splinter Cell: Conviction will, thanks to a deal with Microsoft, be exclusive to Xbox 360 – but don’t assume that the same can be said of its eventual successor.

I don’t see why it wouldn’t,” Ubisoft Montreal’s Max Beland stated when asked by Edge Online if the next game could appear on PS3.

I’m not involved in the business deals. I joined Splinter Cell after the exclusivity deal with Microsoft had already been signed, but there’s no reason why Splinter Cell couldn’t be on the PS3. Conviction? No because of the exclusivity deal.

But the next game is open to new deals. If Microsoft wants an exclusivity deal, they don’t call me, it’s Yves Guillemot dealing with the business people. But yeah, I guess we could even be a PS3 exclusive if there’s a deal that makes people happy there.”

Beland went on to add that while the wait for Conviction’s release has been a lengthy one, gamers shouldn’t expect the same to be true of Splinter Cell 6.

This is a long-term vision, so I’m not telling you that yes, in a year you’ll have another Splinter Cell,” he added. But right now the direction Yves gave us and where the company is going to go [means that] you’re going to be seeing Splinter Cell games, just like Assassin’s Creed games, just like anything else, released a little bit more often.”

Splinter Cell: Conviction was first mooted way back in May 2007 and was at one stage expected to be released in Christmas of that year, though it then slipped to 2008 and subsequently to April of this year.