Project Spark is, or rather was Microsoft's game creation kit that boasted the ability to allow even the most ordinary layman to create their very own video game, which as you might expect came with some rather crippling limitations that ended up being its downfall.

While unfortunate, this shouldn't be surprising news to anyone that followed the project as it "transitioned from active development" last fall and was rarely mentioned ever since. Here's a 'brief' excerpt from the announcement message:

"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. 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.

Despite this news, we want to celebrate the accomplishments of our team and community of creators and players. Our team released 46 content packs, thousands of assets and 16 updates since launch (averaging more than one update every two months). We produced hundreds of livestreams and videos to educate and celebrate our community. In turn, our passionate fans have then gone above and beyond supporting “Project Spark” by uploading hundreds of thousands of creations and dreaming up millions of objects, behaviors, and experiences. Outside the game, they created fan sites, tutorials, forums, apps, and more! We thank everyone who has played or created anything within “Project Spark,” as it would have never existed without you."

Thankfully, all of the developers have moved over to other projects at Microsoft, so even though Project Spark ended up being scrapped entirely, none of the team members went down with it.

If you purchased or redeemed the "Project Spark Starter Kit" after October 5th, 2015 and before today, you will receive credit with which you can purchase content within the Xbox or Windows store. There's no need to do anything on your end, if you're applicable the credits will be granted automatically in the near future.

Project Spark is no longer available for download, but if you're an existing user you'll still be able to toy around with its online services until August 12 after which it will be taken down forever. In other words, if you want access to user-generated content offline, make sure to do so before August.