Microsoft to End Project Spark in August This Year
Project Spark, Microsoft's ambitious free creation suite on Xbox One, is about to deactivated soon. The announcement was made late last Friday with its title taken off from Xbox Marketplace recently with online services readied for shutdown on August 12 this year.
The whole idea of the project is to give gamers the opportunity to flex their creativity via game creation. Following its release on 2014, the free-to-play platform was founded on micro-transactions where users could make use of different set pieces and various tools for creating game levels which they could share with or sell to fellow Xbox and PC gamers.
"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," reads Microsoft blog statement.
"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."
This means that after pulling the plug on the abovementioned date, those who already owned Project Spark can no longer upload the content online or share it with anybody else who doesn't have it. There are no ways to reacquire the games after the shutdown should gamers decide to delete it.
According to Extreme Tech, Project Spark lacks any serious long-term prospects for profitability. Earlier this year, the software giant has already shuttered a number of struggling Microsoft-owned studios that relies on unproductive life support to stay afloat.
In its brief existence, Project Spark failed to live up to its maximum potential due to being a more complicated platform than the likes of its competitors mainly LittleBigPlanet and Super Mario Maker resulting to dismal prospects in a little over two years. As per ARS Technica, Microsoft seemed to be more interesting in sales pitches rather than promoting the value of the make-your-own-game system.
