A screenshot from Microsoft online game creation tool Project Spark. (Photo : Twitter/VentureBeat)
Close on the heels of announcing its plans to shut down the Sunrise Calendar app this summer, Microsoft has now killed Project Spark. The Redmond tech giant announced on May 13, Friday, that they have stopped the sale of the company's online game creator, while online services will be discontinued from August end.
Project Spark, Microsoft's game-making tool for Windows PC and Xbox One, is no longer available for download from Windows Store or Xbox Store with effect from May 15. On the other hand, the online services, which include downloading and uploading user-generated content, will be stopped after Aug. 12, a post in the Project Spark forums stated.
The decision to kill Project Spark was a very difficult one for the entire team, and they have not taken the issue lightly, a statement issued by Team Dakota community manager Thomas Gratz said. He added that when Project Spark moved away from active development in 2015 fall, several team members were transferred to other projects within Microsoft Studios.
According to Gratz, although the closure of Project Spark did not result in any layoffs at the Redmond-headquartered tech firm, it also suggests that they did not find it feasible to continue with the online game creator. It was becoming difficult to keep Project Spark running with significant updates and bug fixes and so they were forced to take the hard decision, he added.
The statement issued by Gratz suggested that existing Project Spark users will not be able to avail online services following 8/12/16. In the absence of the online services, players will not be able to either download user-generated content or upload their own creations.
However, it an existing Project Spark user wants to access user-generated content offline, they will be requiring downloading this content before 8/12/16. Gratz advised the users to make sure that they download their favorite community creations as well as their individual uploads provided they have not been saved locally.
Meanwhile, the company said that any individual who purchase a retail copy of Project Spark will be receiving a credit added to their Microsoft account.
The decision to kill Project Spark comes several months after the company declared that they would not release any further DLC for Spark. The new also comes at the back of Microsoft closing Lionhead as well as killing other "game as service" such as Fable Legends, Kotaku reported.
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