Microsoft shuts down Project Spark

When Project Spark was initially revealed back at E3 2013, there were signs that the title was going to be highly impressive. Offering up a diverse and more complex video game creation toolset in comparison to rivals such as LittleBigPlanet, many hoped that the project would turn into something special. Unfortunately, it seems as though the experiment is coming to a close, with Microsoft confirming that the game is being shut down.

In a post over on the official Project Spark website, community manager Thomas Gratz announced the news. As it turns out, the game has already been removed from both the Xbox Marketplace and the Windows Store, meaning that it can no longer be downloaded by curious gamers. What’s more, online services such as accessing user-created content will no longer be available as of 12 August, 2016.

“This was an extremely difficult decision for our team that we do not take lightly,” Team Dakota community manager Thomas Gratz said in a statement. “When Project Spark transitioned away from active development last fall, many of our team members moved to other projects within Microsoft Studios. While this means there have been no layoffs at Microsoft, it also means it’s simply no longer feasible to continue the behind-the-scenes work involved with keeping Project Spark up and running with meaningful updates and bug fixes, so we have come to this hard decision.