Once-abandoned historical action adventure 1666 Amsterdam has been reannounced at Summer Game Fest by Assassin’s Creed co-creator Patrice Désilets.
Described as a dark third-person story-led action-adventure, 1666 Amsterdam has re-emerged 15 years after Désilets first began working on the concept back at the long-defunct THQ Montreal. That studio was then bought by Ubisoft, for whom Désilets worked for several years before his acrimonious departure.
Now at his own studio Panache Digital, which made ape survival game Ancestors: A Humankind Odyssey, Désilets won back the rights to 1666 Amsterdam — though opted to make Ancestors first.
Now, a free playable 30-minute prologue is available now on Steam and Epic Games Store, while the full game is set to launch in early Access on PC in 2026, with console versions coming later.
“It’s been a long time coming, and I couldn’t be prouder of our team of nearly 70 talented developers in Montreal,” Désilets said. “For the past six years, we’ve focused on one thing above all else: the game itself. No fake footage, no vertical slices, just a playable experience evolving build after build, day after day.
“Today, we’re finally ready to invite players into that process. The free prologue available now on Steam and Epic Games Store is only a small taste of what’s to come, an amuse-bouche before a nine-course dinner, an introduction to the world, its characters, and its different time periods. We hope players will enjoy discovering it as much as we’ve enjoyed creating it.”
Here’s everything announced at Summer Game Fest 2026 if you need a catch up on what the video game industry has in store.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at [email protected] or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
