Star Resonance, the Chinese revival of Blue Protocol, might see a public release before Q1 2026

Blue Protocol: Star Resonance, a game so far kept under wraps with three closed-door playtests, might have its open playtest soon. The game's official Bilibili page recently put out its first progress report since January 2025, which is when the last playtest took place. These playtests so far have taken place with a limited amount of invite keys, but the post claims that it will be more open — although it might still be restricted within China.

Furthermore, the post also shares the devs' ideas on decoupling Mobile UI from the PC Client, among other exciting prospects — such as a broad release schedule that we can deduce from what was revealed.

Disclaimer: Some aspects of this article are speculative.

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Star Resonance might finally open up Blue Protocol to a global playerbase

Blue Protocol might be over, but Star Resonance may revive it in the West (Image via Bokura Network)

The original Blue Protocol terminated its service in Japan this year, and the global release was also cancelled consequently. Theoretically, therefore, Blue Protocol in its original form will never be available to western players; Star Resonance presents that opportunity in an alternative way.

While Bandai Namco Online has now stopped actively developing Blue Protocol, Star Resonance is a Chinese fork of sorts, maintained and developed independently by Bokura Network Technology Co. Ltd., a Shanghai-based studio, partially owned by Tencent.

Compared to the original Blue Protocol that was shuttered in Japan, Bokura is taking their creative liberties to improve the game in various manners through player feedback, revamping one feature at a time. The feedback in question, thus far, has been from a small pool, but Bokura already have the advantage of learning from Bandai Namco's mistakes with the game.

The March progress report indeed functions as a good example of that. Bokura is not only planning no-brainer changes, like decoupling the Mobile-like UI from the PC client, but also completely new features like player housing. Between this and an expanded map with new regions, Star Resonance might give Blue Protocol the Realm Reborn treatment.

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Blue Protocol: Star Resonance has acquired a version number

We can confirm that Star Resonance indeed has received a version number (Image via Bokura Network)

Potentially the biggest bit of news here is that Blue Protocol: Star Resonance has acquired a version number. Essentially, this means an official license from the Chinese government that gives the pertinent company the right to publish the game. Except, it has to be published within a year of the day when the version number was acquired, failing which, it needs to be filed again.

Considering Bokura has acquired said license on or before March 2, 2025, this means we will see Blue Protocol: Star Resonance released in some form by March 2026. That being said, this only implies the public release of a Chinese version. The road to a potential global client of Blue Protocol Star Resonance may well stretch another year after that.

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