14 DAY TRIAL // October will be the year's busiest month, with Battlefield: Hardline, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, The Evil Within, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, Driveclub, Civilization: Beyond Earth, and many others coming out, so Project Spark developer Team Dakota has decided to make it even busier.
The company will, therefore, launch the video game-making video game on October 7 for PC and Xbox One, after a rather lengthy beta that spanned almost a year.
Microsoft is also looking to keep its promise to make the game creation toolset Project Spark available free of charge for everyone, but further components will be purchasable in order to add to the complexity of the experience.
On the Xbox One computer entertainment system, the game will have a retail disc available, going for $40 / €29 and titled Project Spark Starter Pack. The disc will come with the Galaxies: First Contact expansion pack, a character, the warrior champion Sir Haakon "Hawk," as well as the first episode of the game's campaign mode, Champions Quest: Void Storm.
The Starter Pack will also afford purchasers immediate access to other paid content items, such as new features and add-ons. The new content will also be available for the digital versions of Project Spark, on both PC and the Xbox One, but Microsoft has not yet shared any pricing details.
During the E3 gaming trade show last month, Microsoft also announced that Conker the Squirrel, a popular character from Rare's action adventure video games, would also be available as a playable character when the game should launch.
It is unclear for now when the Xbox 360 version of the software is coming out. The beta was only offered on the Xbox One and PC platforms, and support for the Xbox 360 was mentioned, but nothing has been revealed in that sense yet.
"Our team is focused on creating a great experience on Xbox One and Windows 8.1 first, and will then bring that to Xbox 360. We don't have a timeline to share right now, but it's certainly on our roadmap," a Microsoft representative has said to Gamespot.
Since the debut of the beta, the community engaged in tinkering with Project Spark has already created countless games, ranging from match-three to platformers and adventures, proving the application's versatility. The robust toolset will no doubt be complemented by a wealth of user-generated content after it goes live, translating concepts into working prototypes even easier.
Project Spark is coming out for PC and the Xbox One next-gen console from Microsoft, on October 7, this year.