Originally, Blue Protocol was supposed to celebrate its global launch in 2024, but that never happened. Now, the Japanese servers of the anime MMORPG have also gone offline forever. Many players accompanied the end until the very last moment.
What happened to the MMORPG? Since August 2024, it has been clear that there will not be a planned global launch of Blue Protocol. After that, the anime MMORPG was still playable in Japan for several months. However, just a few days ago, on January 18, 2025, the final farewell also took place in Bandai Namco’s home market.
Hundreds of players (including various fans from the West) were reportedly logged in during the last moments of the game to properly say goodbye to Blue Protocol despite its short lifespan and to celebrate the togetherness.
The almost 30-minute long video by Kevadu on YouTube showcases many dancing characters as well as heroes who have gathered in standing or sitting groups.
Blue Protocol looks at times in the trailers like a playable anime:
A project that only leaves losers behind
How does the community react to the end? Even after the announcement of the end of Blue Protocol, many players expressed disappointment about never being able to play the MMORPG. The comments about the end in Japan echo similar sentiments:
- am_9944 writes on YouTube: “It’s really sad that we (globally) never got our hands on the game because we waited 7 years for this… I blame Namco for handling it so poorly with AGS. What did you think would happen? You should have published it yourselves. Star Resonance is our last hope.”
- Smothdude explains on Reddit: “It’s a shame they dropped the ball so damn hard. A full MMORPG in anime style was something so many people wanted.”
- P1zzaman played it and believes (via Reddit): “I played it. BP needed a lot of improvements to succeed in the global market, in my opinion. The graphics and story were great, but the game system and user interface needed to be reworked (the main reason I quit after about 4 months).”
Why is Blue Protocol coming to an end? The anime MMORPG comes from Bandai Namco Online, a subsidiary of the Bandai Namco Group (Tekken franchise, publisher of Elden Ring). The global launch of Blue Protocol was supposed to be conducted in cooperation with Amazon Games. The focus was heavily on the story and PvE content such as dungeons and raids.
Originally, the game was supposed to release in the West in 2023 for Steam, Xbox Series, and PlayStation 5. In May 2023, however, the release of the Western version was postponed to 2024. The Bandai Namco officials stated that the MMORPG should first be released in the Japanese home market.
The Japan launch followed in the summer of 2023, but the game fell short of expectations there. In May 2024, the publisher Smilegate announced that it had put the planned launch in Korea for 2024 on hold for the time being. Bad news followed about the financial situation of Bandai Namco Online.
Although the developers announced extensive plans to improve the MMORPG based on feedback from the Japanese community, they will never be able to implement them. Instead, a spinoff for the universe is set to be released, named Star Resonance. More on this: While Blue Protocol failed, the company behind LoL is making an MMO spinoff with a new name
