During the 5th level, on Displace International Headquarters, when in an air vent you can hear two guys talking about the new Prince of Persia game, made by Ubisoft.
Sam and Douglas Shetland's first face-to-face meeting in this game takes place in a bar. In Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow (2004) Shetland offers to sit down and have a drink with Sam some time.
The first Splinter Cell game to be rated M.
In the news report prior to the Hokkaido mission, one of the scrolling headlines reads: "Front man of punk band Kesshin sent to jail". Kesshin is the band that composed the music heard on radios in various parts of the game.
Because the game depicts a war between North and South Korea, South Korea, which as of 2011 is still officially, but not actually, in a state of war with its northern neighbor, banned the game to avoid tensions with North Korea. However, this ban was lifted in 2007, and also applied to some other games that depicts a war between the two Koreas.