You may have come across a game called 1666: Amsterdam in recent weeks, which is a new story-led action adventure title by the folks at Panache Digital Games - known for developing the popular Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey.

Patrice Desilets was the founder of that studio, and he happens to be the creator of Assassin's Creed, serving as creative director on the original two games. He also assumed that role for 2003's Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.

It stands to reason that Xbox would have been interested in publishing 1666: Amsterdam, then, and apparently it almost happened - a new report by GameFile reveals that Microsoft was in line to be the publisher at one point:

We also actually reported on a rumour about this a couple of years ago (looks like it was on the money!):

Despite Xbox's lack of involvement, we're still expecting to see 1666: Amsterdam on Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S whenever it launches, and it'll be interesting to see how the full game fares.

There is a free Prologue on Steam already if you're interested, but even the developer says that it doesn't feature the "core gameplay loop" of the main release, serving instead as a way to introduce you to the characters and story.

We'll leave you with more details on 1666: Amsterdam down below, along with screenshots.

Every 333 years, something stirs. 1666: Amsterdam is a 3rd person Dark, Story-Led, Action-Adventure where Noa, the Collector, wields witchcraft to uncover demonic entities hiding behind human faces. Investigate by day. Face your demons at night.

Excited for this one? Would you have liked to see Xbox publish it? Let us know in the comments below.