Project Spark
Microsoft formally launched a game-making world, made all its content free, and then switched off the servers that held its community creations.
Quick facts
- Existence state
- Officially Gone
- Peak stage
- general availability
- Research confidence
- high
- Last verified
What it was
A game-creation platform for Xbox One and Windows developed by Team Dakota and SkyBox Labs.
Players sculpted terrain, programmed behaviours and shared playable projects using controllers, Kinect and a visual logic system.
Existence timeline
Microsoft demonstrates creation tools for Xbox One and Windows.
Project Spark exits beta and reaches general availability.
Microsoft removes its previous marketplace structure.
New users can no longer download the platform.
Community sharing and connected features stop.
Why it ended
Microsoft removed the product from stores in May 2016 and closed online services in August as the active team moved elsewhere.
Last confirmed trace
Locally saved creations, videos, screenshots and community archives preserve only part of the user-made catalogue.
What it left behind
The shutdown shows the preservation cost when a creation tool and its distribution network disappear together.
How we classified it
The archive unit reached normal public release or operation and is no longer obtainable in its original public form.
Verified normal public availability maps to 100 under Arrival Score V1.
Sources & verification
Last reviewed 2026-08-01. Sources are linked so readers can inspect the evidence directly.