These days, AAA game publishers are obsessed with chasing that live service and gacha money. But for every Fortnite, Genshin Impact and Overwatch, there are tons of games that end up more like Radical Heights, Anthem or Overwatch 2. Not every title is able to make it, forcing the creators to either pivot hard to try and maintain whatever fanbase they had or pull the plug on it entirely. Blue Protocol is the latest in a line of games to end up in the latter situation.
Developed by Namco Bandai Online with a team of veterans who worked on theTales, Tekken and Ace Combat franchises and released in Japan in June last year, Blue Protocol was billed as a sci-fi fantasy MMORPG with more emphasis on the RPG part compared to Genshin and similar games. Its class focus. combat cel-shaded art style was well-recieved by players, testers and critics alike, and people were anticipating a western release later this year published by Amazon Games.
Untortunately, the western release of Blue Protocol is never going to happen at this point. An announcement on the game's official website says it's been cancelled, and the Japanese servers for the game will be going offline in a few months. It says:
"Bandai Namco Online announced that they have made the difficult decision to end service on Blue Protocol. They will shut down their Japanese Blue Protocol servers in January 2025, and have ended plans to release the game in the West in collaboration with Amazon Games.
In their statement announcing the end of service, Bandai Namco Online said, “We have enjoyed a strong relationship with Amazon Games throughout the development of Blue Protocol, and both of our teams are disappointed that we will not be able to deliver the game to players around the world.”
We know this is disappointing news, and we share your disappointment. We love the world and characters of Blue Protocol, and we were excited to welcome players around the world into Regnas. We join Bandai Namco Online in expressing deep gratitude to the passionate fans who followed Blue Protocol development and participated in the Closed Technical Test."
Maybe this can be another wake-up call to industry suits that not everyone wants live-service games, and perhaps they should reprioritize developers' schedules to create well-made gaming experiences that aren't expected to become cash cows overnight. It's a shame the devs who worked hard on the game for years have to see their work disappear before their very eyes for reasons that are out of their control, but the MMO space has always been brutal, even before the current live-service boom.
Did you guys get a chance to play Blue Protocol at any point? Are you sad to see it getting cancelled? Leave your thoughts below as always!
