‘Blue Protocol’ promised to be an ambitious MMORPG with anime aesthetics. But that, "promised"because they just cancelled it

There are, or rather, there were two games that MMORPG fans were really looking forward to: ‘Throne and Liberty‘ and ‘Blue Protocol’. The first is the spiritual heir of ‘Lineage II’ and will reach our borders soon thanks to Amazon. The second was an interesting proposal by Bandai Namco, as it sought to offer an action MMORPG with anime aesthetics. Like ‘Genshin Impact’, but more massive. It looked good, but that’s what it looked like, because Bandai Namco has cancelled it.

That is It was Blue Protocol. It was an action MMORPG in which we would create our own character and do everything humanly possible to save Magna, a continent on the planet Regnas. What we knew was that the gameplay looked phenomenal, that there were several classes with their corresponding skills; dungeons, cities, raids… All of this accompanied by really cool graphics. It was like playing an anime.

What happened? They’ve cancelled it, but completely. The game was being developed by Bandai Namco in Unreal Engine and had been in the works for a long time. In fact, it was announced in 2019. The idea was to launch it in the second half of 2023, and that’s what happened, but only in Japan, where it has been available until now. Amazon Games was going to bring it to the West, just as it did with ‘Lost Ark’ and will do with ‘Throne and Liberty’, but now none of that will happen.

According to Bandai Namco has explainedthe company “has made the difficult decision to end the ‘Blue Protocol’ service. They will close the Japanese servers in January 2025 and, of course, “have ended their plans to release the game in the West in collaboration with Amazon Games.” In short: ‘Blue Protocol’ is over.

One of the ‘Blue Protocol’ classes | Image: Blue Protocol

Because? Well, we don’t know. The company hasn’t given many explanations about it. All it has said is that “it’s disappointing news, and we share your disappointment.” What we do know is that, at least in Japan, the game wasn’t doing particularly well and wasn’t meeting the company’s expectations.

The game lacked content and was not updated frequently enough, which is critical for a game as a service. There was also a lack of balance in the buildsimprovements in the endgame… Anyway, it needed quite a bit of development. Add to that the fact that Bandai Namco’s previous anime games, namely ‘Jujutsu Kaisen: Crushed Clash‘ and ‘Naruto x Boruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm Connections‘ didn’t work very well.

Amazon Games’ upcoming projectsBandai Namco cancelling the game is a cold shower, but fortunately Amazon Games has more games on the way. ‘Throne and Liberty’ will arrive on October 1 on Steam, Xbox Series X | S and PlayStation 5 and is their next big bet. It will be free to play And although it has received more than one or two criticisms in South Korea, the title does not look bad.

Cover image | Blue Protocol

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