1666: Amsterdam and the Assassin's Creed Link

Because the comparison is literal, not marketing. The man directing this game created Assassin's Creed, announced 1666: Amsterdam in 2012 at Ubisoft, lost it when the project was cancelled, and spent over a decade getting the rights back. Last verified .

The short version

  1. 2007–2010. Patrice Désilets is creative director on the first two Assassin's Creed games — the ones that established the historical-city formula the series still runs on.
  2. 2012. 1666: Amsterdam is announced as his next project, then in development at THQ Montreal.
  3. 2013. Ubisoft acquires the studio, and the project is cancelled. Désilets leaves.
  4. 2016. After a legal fight, Désilets recovers the rights to the concept. He founds Panache Digital Games.
  5. 2019. Panache ships Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey — a difficult, deliberately unhelpful survival game. Useful context for what this studio thinks games should ask of you.
  6. 2026. 1666: Amsterdam is unveiled at Summer Game Fest and enters Early Access on August 25.

The Xbox chapter nobody expected

Reporting from Stephen Totilo indicates the game was set to be Xbox-published before Microsoft cut the funding, leaving Panache to self-publish. That detail reframes the release: this is a game shipping in Early Access on PC not purely as a design choice but as a studio funding its own completion. It also explains why console versions have no date — there is no platform partner pushing one.

1666: Amsterdam vs Assassin's Creed Hexe

These two get compared constantly, and it is a fair comparison to draw as long as you know what is actually shared. Both are historical, both lean occult, both involve witchcraft in early modern Europe. The overlap in tone is real.

What is not shared: any development connection. Hexe is a Ubisoft project. Désilets has no involvement in it. The reason the two feel adjacent is that Ubisoft's series eventually walked toward the territory its original creator wanted to explore in 2012 — not that either is a response to the other.

The mechanical difference matters more. 1666: Amsterdam is built on a day/night investigation loop — talk and observe by day, hunt by night — rather than on parkour and open-world assassination. If you are coming for "Assassin's Creed in Amsterdam", the free Prologue will tell you quickly whether the actual game is what you want.

What "the Collector" means

You play Noa, who inherits the mantle of the Collector during a ceremony the game calls her Commencement. The premise is a cycle that turns once every 333 years — hence 1666, which is half of 3332 and lands the story on a hinge point. Demonic entities hide behind human faces; Noa's inherited witchcraft is what exposes them.

Désilets has also said publicly that you play as a cat at points — which is why the cat choice draws so much attention despite appearing cosmetic in the Prologue.

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