In an interview with VG247, game designer Patrice Désiletes hinted that he will likely restart working on Amsterdam 1666. The project which was seen as a spiritual successor to the Assassin’s Creed series experienced a tumultuous legal battle between Ubisoft and Désiletes.
Amsterdam 1666 is a well-known project which Patrice Désiletes started working on after leaving Ubisoft. Désiletes joined THQ afterwards where he worked more than two years on Amsterdam 1666. The untimely bankruptcy of THQ in 2012 abruptly halted development on the game, and Ubisoft ultimately swooped in to purchase the rights for the game. What could have been a fairy tale ending led instead to Ubisoft cancelling the game and engaging in a legal battle with Désiletes over the rights to Amsterdam 1666.
Three years ago then, in 2016, Désiletes won the rights for the game but by then he was already working on another project, Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey. An early look at in-development footage of Amsterdam 1666 was given that same year but suffice to say, the game was being worked on many years ago during the height of last-gen consoles. Simply resuming work isn’t really possible anymore as an entire console generation passed by.
As such, it wasn’t really clear whether Amsterdam 1666 would ever see the light of day again. Désiletes is no longer working at a big publisher too, which makes it difficult for the ambitious open-world game to be produced. Nonetheless, the seasoned game designer hasn’t written off the game. In an interview with VG247 he said that Ancestors has the priority at the moment but that work on that game has given him and his team at Panache Digital Games the tools to make other games in the future. When asked about the possibility of Amsterdam 1666 resuming work he directly confirmed by saying “For sure, Amsterdam 1666 is gonna happen“. But don’t expect to see more substantial stuff about it anytime soon, as Désiletes thinks he’ll have to restart that game’s development from scratch.
