Although Assassin’s Creed creator Patrice Désilets and his studio Panache are currently working on Ancestors (you can find our impressions of a recent build of that game here), the studio originally wanted to work on Amsterdam 1666, a game set in that location and year that was something of a mix between Assassin’s Creed’s historical intrigue and Ancestors’ animal-manipulating hook. While that project has since been officially canceled, Désilets hasn’t given up on it completely.
Speaking with VG247, Désilets said Amsterdam 1666 is still happening. “For sure, Amsterdam 1666 is gonna happen,” he told them. He also mentioned that Ancestors, which also has players controlling different animals, could work as a proof-of-concept of sorts to further refine many of the concepts shown in an off-screen gameplay video of Amsterdam 1666 shown a few years ago.
The game was the subject of a protracted legal battle between Désilets and Ubisoft, after the two parties had a dispute over the project’s development and Ubisoft decided to cancel development and terminate Désilets.
Panache is still working on Ancestors, of course, which means we likely won’t see Amsterdam 1666 any time soon. And whenever Désilets and Panache decided to return to it, it’ll likely be somewhat different. “It’ll probably change a little bit,” Désilets told VG247. “You were more like the devil’s apprentice than the actual devil. Once I finish this and then, ‘Okay what’s next?’ If it’s Amsterdam 1666, I’ll probably restart from scratch.”
