Project Spark Will No Longer Ignite
Yesterday, Project Spark Community Manager Thomas Gratz reported on the Project Spark forums that support for the game will be discontinued. Effective immediately, the game won’t be available for purchase anymore from either the Windows Store or the Xbox Store.
Effective August 12th, online services will become unavailable and user generated content will no longer be downloadable. If you do download the community creation before then, you will still be able to access the content offline.
“This was an extremely difficult decision for our team that we do not take lightly. 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.
Despite this news, we want to celebrate the accomplishments of our team and community of creators and players. Our team released 46 content packs, thousands of assets and 16 updates since launch (averaging more than one update every two months). We produced hundreds of livestreams and videos to educate and celebrate our community. In turn, our passionate fans have then gone above and beyond supporting “Project Spark” by uploading hundreds of thousands of creations and dreaming up millions of objects, behaviors, and experiences. Outside the game, they created fan sites, tutorials, forums, apps, and more! We thank everyone who has played or created anything within “Project Spark,” as it would have never existed without you.”
Players who purchased the “Project Spark Starter Kit” or redeemed a retail code of the game after October 5th, 2015, will receive credit that can be used to purchase content on the Xbox One or Windows stores.
Project Spark, developed by Team Dakota and published by Microsoft Studios, launched officially in October 2014 on Xbox One and Windows after a period in open beta.