Microsoft To Abandon Project Spark Online Game Creation Service On August 12th

Microsoft's Project Spark had a ton of potential. It was built up (no pun) to be the ultimate builder game, allowing users to create their own worlds, mechanics, and fun. The game even had the benefit of being available on both the Xbox One and PC, but alas, it has proven to be one of those games that just wasn't mean to go on forever.

In an official post, Microsoft and Team Dakota jointly announced that Project Spark support would be discontinued, and as of right now, the game is no longer available for download. If you already have the game downloaded, you'll be able to continue to play until August 12, at which point the game's servers are going to be shut down.

While it's never great to see what's ultimately the work of a big, talented development team go the way of the Dodo, the upside here is that no one has been laid-off as a result of this shutdown. Instead, when the game transitioned to become "free" last fall, everyone involved wound up working on a different project at Microsoft.

In the post, the team's accomplishments with Spark are reiterated. In the time the game was online, the team released 46 content packs, thousands of assets, and 16 total updates since the game's launch. It's still unfortunate that the game has to be shut down at all, though, considering there are sure to be many out there who still enjoy it. This is yet another reminder that our online connected games are not always going to be here; a harsh reality when you truly enjoy a specific title or genre.