It turns out that the new game from one of the creators of Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed mega-franchise, 1666: Amsterdam, wasn’t always an independent venture.
1666: Amsterdam was a third-party Xbox game
This most recent Summer Game Fest showcase was the stage for the reveal of 1666: Amsterdam, a new action adventure game that sees players take on the role of a magic-wielding witch in the 17th century streets of the famous European city. It was one of the more unique games shown off during the event, and it’s been in the making for a very long 16 years.
Alongside the trailer’s 2026 release window, it also revealed that 1666’s Prologue demo had gone live on Steam. The 30-minute demo lets players experience the opening moments of the game, getting them acquainted with some of the characters and also introducing them to some of the game’s mechanics.
Xbox cut off 1666 partnership
As I reported in Game File, 1666: Amsterdam, the new game led by the lead creator of Assassin’s Creed, was going to be Xbox-published, before MS cut fundingThat means, in recent years, Xbox was backing games from him, the Romeros, and Kojma. Not every game pans out, but quite a set of partners
— Stephen Totilo (@stephentotilo.bsky.social) 2026-06-29T15:35:23.433Z
In talking with Stephen Totilo, 1666: Amsterdam‘s creative director Patrice Desilets revealed that Panache Digital once struck up a deal with Xbox to fund and publish the game. However, Xbox had since pulled its funding, ending the partnership. After the breakup, Panache continued working on 1666 and is now preparing to publish the dark fantasy action adventure game itself. It’s not clear why Xbox never publicly announced 1666 as one of its third-party partnership games, though a good number of such games have historically gone years in the rumor mill before their official Xbox reveals.
Xbox’s third-party partnerships have slowed down considerably over the past several years. Partnered games like Ara: History Untold and Towerborne have been able to make it out the door, and last year’s Ninja Gaiden 4 was one of the most high-profile third-party Xbox games to release in quite some time. However, Avalanche Studios’ co-op game Contraband was canned almost a year ago after over four years of radio silence, as was a Romero Games FPS, and IO Interactive’s Project Fantasy has also been MIA for a long time. Xbox does still have its partnership with Hideo Kojima for OD alive and well, but aside from that, it seems evident that Xbox has been scaling back on its third-party publishing partnerships as of late.
1666: Amsterdam‘s Prologue demo seemed to have missed the mark for some of those who tried the game out on Steam after seeing its intriguing Summer Game Fest reveal. With the huge amount of games dated for this Fall it seems doubtful that 1666 will make it out this year. If Panache does decide to push it to 2027, they’ll have some more time to iron out some of the issues players have been experiencing in its Prologue demo.
1666: Amsterdam is coming to PC in 2026.
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