After the difficult launch in Japan, publisher Smilegate has now decided to postpone the Korea launch of Blue Protocol indefinitely. The anime MMORPG from Bandai Namco is one of the major genre hopes for the gaming year 2024.
What is happening with Blue Protocol?
- Originally, the anime MMORPG from Bandai Namco was supposed to be released in the West in 2023 for Steam, Xbox Series, and PlayStation 5, with Amazon Games as the publisher.
- In May 2023, the Western version was postponed to 2024. The Bandai Namco officials stated that they would like to release the MMORPG first in Japan.
- The Japan launch followed in the summer of 2023, but the game apparently fell short of expectations.
- Now, publisher Smilegate announced that the planned launch in Korea for 2024 will be put on hold for the time being (via the Korean website of Blue Protocol).
- The last update on the German website of the game is from November 2023.
In Japan, Blue Protocol has been playable since the summer of 2023.
How does Smilegate justify the postponement? They want to use the additional time to implement the numerous feedback from players, so that Blue Protocol can be released in the best possible quality.
Notably, the publisher is not only informing the Korean community about the postponement, but has also announced that official communication channels such as Discord will be unavailable indefinitely starting May 20, 2024.
It almost sounds like they want to go back to the drawing board with the developers at Bandai Namco Online to make extensive adjustments that could take a while. This would, of course, also affect the launch in Europe. However, Amazon Games has remained tight-lipped so far.
That’s why we are looking forward to Blue Protocol
At first glance, Blue Protocol might seem like a typical MMORPG from Asia with a free-to-play model. However, the online action role-playing game places an unusually strong focus on storytelling and PvE challenges for solo players, small groups, and 30-player raids.
Additionally, the colorful cel-shading style makes Blue Protocol look like an interactive anime. And if it goes by Alexander Leitsch, who checked out the Japanese version for several hours last year, there is also a lot of gameplay potential – I played Blue Protocol and say: This will be the best MMORPG of the last 9 years
