1666: Amsterdam hits early access on August 25 with 15 hours of content

1666: Amsterdam, the dark witchy action game from Assassin's Creed creator Patrice Désilets and his studio Panache Digital Games, launches into early access on August 25 for PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store.

The early access build delivers the first chunk of the campaign — Polygon reports around 15 hours of content based on Panache's Steam update, while Eurogamer's Désilets interview puts it at roughly 10 hours. Either way, it's less than half of what the full game is planned to offer. Panache expects early access to last about a year, with several major updates along the way, though the studio sounds open to adjusting that timeline based on community feedback. The game casts you as Noa, a witch navigating 1666 Amsterdam, alongside Aaron, a regular guy from 1999 — the two end up magically entangled, each becoming the other's cat familiar across timelines. A third playable character, a modern-day descendant of Noa, rounds out the structure.

1666: Amsterdam has had a long and turbulent road to release. Désilets originally began developing it in the early 2010s while at THQ Montreal, and the project got caught up in years of legal disputes between him and Ubisoft before he eventually regained control. The game was formally re-revealed at Summer Game Fest in June alongside a free playable prologue. That demo landed with a thud — Polygon's Ford James called the gameplay and writing "awful" and said the game needed to go back to the drawing board. The reveal was further complicated when Panache confirmed it had used generative AI for some in-game portraits and marketing assets, though the studio has since stated the early access and full release will contain no AI-generated assets.

Eurogamer's hands-on preview describes the game as "a bit awkward but full of interesting ideas," which is a more charitable read than the demo generated. Whether the early access build has addressed the roughness that put off early players will be the real test when it goes live on August 25.