Make-O: Project Spark DLC Going Free, Conker Dropped
RIP sweet squirrel
Project Spark [official site] is Microsoft's latest free 3D create-o-play doodad for making your own games and playing other people's, but it launched with two irritants: it was exclusive to Windows 8, an OS many people skipped; and it had a fair amount of annoying DLC for its gamepieces and gameprops. Well, now we have Windows 10, which is nicer than 8 at least, and soon all of Project Spark's DLC will be set free.
Microsoft have announced plans to stop making new Spark bits and turn all the old stuff free. This includes cancelling the rest of that baffling Conker the Squirrel stuff.
Basically, it sounds like Spark wasn't making enough money for Microsoft to bother continuing. "Microsoft will pivot from producing DLC and active feature development to encouraging more user generated content and opening the Project Spark experience," they say, which is a nice way to say they're done. But hey, they're going out with a bang!
Come October 5th, an update will bring nice changes like doubling the terrain, boosting the number of props levels can use, adding over 200 new assets from a big biome to a dragon, and, of course, setting all the DLC free. That's not bad, that.
As for Conker, the decision to resurrect Rare's squirrel in episodic levels in a game maker was... unusual. Some Conker stuff has been released, but future bits are now cancelled. It wasn't the comeback fans wanted, but will his passing be mourned?