Blue Protocol, an action-MMO comparable to Hoyoverse’s megahits like Genshin Impact, has been available in Japan courtesy of developer Bandai Namco. A global version of the game was supposed to launch earlier this year, but developer Bandai Namco and publisher Amazon Games had been cagey. Late last night, it was revealed why: Blue Protocol was being sunset in Japan with western release plans ended completely.
“We have worked hard to prepare for the release; however, we have come to the conclusion that it will not be possible to provide a service that satisfies all of you,” reads the English statement on the game’s website.
Blue Protocol had been in development for nearly eight years, popping up at events as an upcoming anime-inspired online game here and there. In 2022, Amazon announced that they would be publishing the game in North America starting with a beta in 2023. The beta came and went to some criticism of empty worlds and missing content, which the Bandai Namco team promised to fix, and it has been radio silent since then. The cancelation may not come as a shock to Japanese fans of the games who found the online updates to the game to be simultaneously too little and too late.
This paints Blue Protocol poorly when compared to rivals like the aforementioned Genshin Impact, which boasts over 66 million active players. Hoyoverse’s latest game, Zenless Zone Zero, topped 50 million downloads in its first month. The market is definitely there for these kinds of games, but it appears Bandai Namco expected greater losses from continuing to attempt Blue Protocol and launching it in North America than simply canceling the game outright.
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It does speak to a moderately unhealthy look for games as a service in the industry for major publishers like Bandai Namco and Amazon to give up before fighting. While likely the fiscally responsible decision, it implies that there is simply no recovery for certain types of stumbles. Amazon’s other MMORPG, New World, has enjoyed modest success since its launch after initially coming out of the gate strong and looks to be the company’s focus for the near future.