After its announcement at Summer Games Fest 2026, 1666: Amsterdam was met with excitement and high regard. This was to be expected, coming from Panache Digital Games, a developing company who is led by co-creator of the Assassin’s Creed franchise Patrice Désilets. The hype surrounding it quickly died down when the playable prologue became available for fans to test out for themselves. Those who explored the digital recreation of Amsterdam quickly noticed something odd about some assets: it was clearly generative AI.
Word of this spread quickly online, fan after fan bashing Panache for their decision to utilize AI over human artists. To mitigate the backlash, the company took to social media to respond, initially saying they would be “investigating internally” about the issue. Soon after, they released statement about their findings:
We have a dedicated team of over a dozen talented and experienced artists. With them, we looked into the assets in question and found that there were indeed some early versions of assets that made their way into the the prologue. This includes some in-game portraits and external marketing assets.
We are actively reviewing the assets in question. Human made versions will be released in an update dropping soon.
We own up to this oversight and apologize for any upset caused. Please be assured that the Early Access and full game will not include any assets generated by AI.
This was the last of the talk of AI on their behalf until Gamescom 2026, where GamesRadar+ asked for clarification to put the entire debacle to rest. Désilets clarified generative AI was used “at the beginning” and “in conception and pre-production”, but it has since been removed and they “won’t be using any AI anymore.”
What should have been the end of this situation ignited a greater fire within fans, they simply do not believe Désilets. The simple but honest answer did more damage for the their case, and for good reason.
Many fans argue that using AI as a base is worse than just adding it in as an afterthought or to fill in voids. The infancy of a game is the most important step of development, the concepts are born here and by using AI for it, it was not an original thought of Panache’s. They used AI to create the base of 1666: Amsterdam and built off of it, so removing any lingering assets is useless; the manner in which they utilized it will forever be present, even if they get their artists to replace it, it will still be a recreation.
People have also pointed out that the apology is not sincere considering earlier discussions. In an article written by Robert Purchese of Eurogamer, he shared what Désilets said during a preview event he attended:
I can ask the AI to give me 75 different variations of one thing, but I cannot have 75 different illustrators come up with a variation in three seconds. This is the world in which we’re living, and while we were this small team and building [the game], we put it in. We didn’t even realise it was AI any more because we were used to seeing it.
The veteran game designer apologized right after saying this, but followed up with essentially saying there is no other choice in modern times but to use it. When asked if it was still being used for the game, he responded with “it’s being used less and less”, not that it has been completely stopped. Fans have used this response to justify their distrust with the statement released regarding removing all AI from the game before its official release.
Many games use AI now, most recieving backlash for it, but 1666: Amsterdam has been especially bad because of who is using it. A man who has designed games that have been loved by nearly all gamers for years with his own thoughts and hands, someone who is more than capable of going against the “AI slop” drowining humanity, has taken the easy route. Gamers are slowly losing the faith and confidence they have in the developers they grew up with and love because they could not take the time, effort, and manpower to create original material like they have done for all these years.