Ubisoft has received a new trademark for 1666, also known as 1666: Amsterdam, the code name for the project being worked on by Assassin’s Creed creator Patrice Desilets when he was working at THQ.
When THQ filed for bankruptcy, the IP was purchased by Ubisoft and Desilets returned to work at his former employer. Months of legal wrangling followed and Desilets ultimately left to establish his own studio.
Ubisoft has remained quiet about 1666 ever since but the new trademark filing with the United States Patents and Trademarks Office (USPTO) suggests they haven’t forgotten about it. It’s quite possible, even likely, that Ubisoft doesn’t actually intend to do anything with the trademark and has simply filed it in order to prevent Desilets using it.
The trademark was filed on April 13th and covers both digital and physical game software. There’s no reference to “Amsterdam”.
Three years ago, Desilets said he was “fighting” to make the “amazing” 1666. Ubisoft suspended development on the game when Desilets sued them $400,000 over what he alleged amounted to a series of contract breaches by the publisher.
“After more than two months of discussion with [Désilets], we couldn’t align our vision both on project development and team management, so consequently our collaboration has ended,” Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said at the time. “We have suspended development on 1666 for an undisclosed time.”
Desilets is currently developing Ancestors: A Human Odyssey, a narrative-driven episodic title. His hope is to boost the replayability of episodic games by offering enough variety that players will return to the game after they’ve completed it.
