Blue Protocol’s Abrupt Shutdown Is Bad for Fans, And Maybe Worse for Amazon

If you’ve never heard of Blue Protocol, you’re actually one of the lucky ones. Bandai Namco’s anime massively multiplayer online role-playing game, which launched in Japan in 2023, has had plenty of players eager for its worldwide release, but now that day will never come. The publisher announced this week that Blue Protocol is canceling the game’s global launch, and winding down service in Japan on January 18, 2025. For a project that once looked like a promising challenger to Genshin Impact’s throne, the cancellation is a crushing blow to potential players, and the latest in a string of failures for co-publisher Amazon Games.

“We wanted to deliver an experience that is like stepping into the world of anime, and we have been challenging ourselves to create a world where each and every player can enjoy adventures as the main character of the anime,” Bandai Namco said in a blog post. “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.”

Blue Protocol was originally expected to launch worldwide in 2023, a date that was announced on stage at The Game Awards 2022. Since then, Bandai Namco had little to say about the game to worldwide audiences, as it worked to get the game into shape after its Japanese launch. Back in June, developers told Famitsu the game was struggling to retain players, Siliconera reported. The team said it was working to identify where players were falling off and address the issues. It’s not clear what happened between then and now to convince Bandai Namco that the game was unsalvageable.

The announcement comes as a shock to players anticipating Blue Protocol’s worldwide release. Prospective players in the game’s subreddit have been expressing their dismay in the day since the shutdown was revealed, even asking about the possibility of private servers or launching a petition to save it.

While Blue Protocol may not be widely known in the mainstream gaming audience, it had built a substantial following among players more plugged in to the MMO scene. Along with Bandai Namco’s promise to transport players “into the world of anime,” Blue Protocol was also seen as something of a competitor to Genshin Impact. Both are live-service games with fast-paced action combat and a clear anime influence in their art style. Fans worldwide have been eagerly following the game’s progress for years, and from the outside, its combat and gorgeous world looked quite compelling.

Japanese players who’ve already gotten their hands on the game have even more reasons to be upset. In a video released only in Japanese, Bandai Namco explains that players won’t receive any refunds for money they’ve spent on Rose Orbs, the game’s premium currency, according to Siliconera. Those who stick around till the bitter end will get heaps of free Rose Orbs for their trouble, plus free access to its latest battle pass.

Blue Protocol’s cancellation marks yet another stumble for Amazon Games. A multiplayer brawler called Breakaway was canceled in 2018. In 2020, its multiplayer shooter Crucible was released, then pulled back into open beta in an utterly unprecedented move, before being canceled shortly after. The publisher’s Lord of the Rings MMORPG was canceled in 2021 — but it’s now at work on a different Lord of the Rings MMORPG, which doesn’t yet have a release date. New World, yet another MMORPG, launched in 2021 to middling reviews and little interest, though it’s set to get a console release under the name New World: Aeternum this year, along with a short in the upcoming Secret Levels TV series. Of all those canceled projects, it may be Blue Protocol that stings the most, given that it had already launched and garnered many fans before disappearing forever.