Bandai Namco and Amazon Game Studios have announced their collaborative online RPG Blue Protocol will shut down in Japan, and the Western release has been cancelled entirely. Japanese users have until 18th January 2025 to keep on playing the game, at which point it'll be taken offline.
In a post on the Blue Protocol website, the development team said it was trying to create an experience where everyone felt like the main character of an anime, though "we have come to the conclusion that it will not be possible to provide a service that satisfies all of you".
Blue Protocol now enters the vault of few games we've actually played pre-release that never see the light of day. We played the Western version at a preview event more than a year ago, and came away positive it could provide the likes of Genshin Impact with some competition. "With what felt like satisfying combat and many large worlds to explore and plunder, Genshin Impact will need to watch its back next year. Blue Protocol awaits in 2024, and after an already successful Japanese launch, it shaping up to be proper competition in the online space." Now we'll never know if it could have toppled the Hoyoverse heavyweight.