Microsoft Shuts Down Project Spark
In a statement on the official website, Project Spark community manager Thomas Gratz has revealed that Microsoft and Team Dakota are shutting down Project Spark. Support for the game will be discontinued, effective May 13. Online services will be the game will be unavailable after August 12.
With this move, players will not be able to download any user-generated content or upload their own creations for the game. Players want to access any user-generated content offline, it will have to be downloaded before August 12. Otherwise, those community creations will not be saved locally.
After much consideration, Microsoft and Team Dakota have decided to discontinue support for “Project Spark.”
Starting 5/13/16, “Project Spark” will no longer be available for download on the Xbox Marketplace or Windows Store. For existing users of “Project Spark,” online services will be unavailable after 8/12/16. Without services, players will no longer be able to download user-generated content or upload their own creations. If you want to access user-generated content offline, you will need to download this content prior to 8/12/16. Be sure to download your favorite community creations and your own uploads if they are not saved locally. We’re also aware that after transitioning “Project Spark” to be a free incubation engine last fall, that some players might still have purchased the game at retail, and have outlined steps about obtaining a credit for those players below.
Gratz added there have no been no layoffs as a result of the shutdown. He stated: “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.”
Players who purchased the Project Spark Starter Kit that was sold by retail outlets can receive a credit for their Microsoft account. If players redeemed a code inside a retail copy of the game after October 5, 2015, they can receive a credit that will be eligible to get content for the Xbox or Windows store. \