Soon-to-be-closed Blue Protocol is officially Bandai Namco Online's final game

Blue Protocol by Bandai Namco Online was a game I was very excited about, but we’ve long since known it isn't heading to the West. Not only that, it’s confirmed to shut down completely in Japan in January 2025. It’s unfortunate that the free-to-play online action RPG with gorgeous anime visuals isn’t coming to the West. Whether this was the right call by Bandai Namco isn’t something we can judge; it is a disappointing bit of news.

However, what we’ve also learned is that Blue Protocol is Bandai Namco Online’s final game to be developed and published. While this anime MMO is being dropped, we’ll still get online games from Bandai Namco in the future — we’re sure.

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Bandai Namco Online to dissolve after Blue Protocol closes, but it's not the end for the developer

Bandai Namco Online will be dissolved after Blue Protocol closes, which sounds terrible. It’s not too surprising, though. Bandai Namco had previously begun shrinking its overall workforce, but when you look at two of its titles, perhaps it’s not a shock that this arm of the company is going away.

The Bandai Namco Online title had a cool look, but that's about it (Image via Bandai Namco)

Before Blue Protocol’s apparent failure, there was Gundam Evolution. While I enjoyed the game immensely, it was held back by monetization systems, and its overall inability to get a foothold in the FPS/hero shooter genres. It simply couldn’t compete with the other titles in the genre like CoD and Valorant.

What hurt the anime MMO, though, and prevented its global launch? Many people accused Blue Protocol of being pay-to-win and having greedy monetization systems. Its approach to censorship has also been questioned, but the main problem to most people was that the game was empty.

It lacked content, even after almost a decade of development time. There was apparently nothing interesting about the title outside of its looks, and that won't hold a game up forever. We don't know for sure what stopped its launch, but these are the sentiments of the online community.

Sadly, we'll never see the likes of this game (Image via Bandai Namco)

Sure, it sounds bad that Bandai Namco Online is being dissolved on April 1, 2025. However, the separate company will be absorbed back into Bandai Namco Entertainment, and the games that are still running will be taken care of by them.

So, good news SD Gundam Operations fans — that title isn’t going anywhere. It’s unknown what will happen to the employees at Bandai Namco Online, but the hope is that they will also come aboard.

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It’s not like Bandai Namco is doing poorly at the moment either. Dragon Ball Sparking Zero did incredibly well, and then there were successes like Gundam Breaker 4 and Tekken 8, which continue to be played worldwide.