Blue Protocol meets it untimely demise, but not without a massive virtual dance party by its devoted player base 

Bandai Namco’s ill-fated MMORPG Blue Protocol ended service on January 18 without ever making it to the West. In the hours leading up to the shutdown, Japanese players gathered in the game’s starting town, Asterliese, for a synchronized farewell dance that started with just a few players and spontaneously escalated into a mass event (source: Nlab). 

A video of the impromptu event, posted by X user @michsuzu), captured the bittersweet moment and has since amassed over 11.2 million views and 70,000 likes. 

The video shows Blue Protocol’s players dancing in perfect harmony as they counted down to the MMORPG’s shutdown. As the clock struck 10 PM, the game displayed a farewell message thanking players for sticking around. Moments later, everything paused, and the server disconnected, marking the game’s final goodbye. 

While Blue Protocol may have been an unsuccessful financial venture for Bandai Namco, it was by no means a dead game with no players. Fans on social media shared their reactions, with comments like, “Your love for this game is taking up the whole screen” and “I’ve never seen a game so loved at its end.” Some joked about players “isekai-ing” into the game world as it vanished. 

On a related note, Blue Protocol is set to be “reincarnated” as a new MMORPG named Star Resonance. The reboot is being developed by Tencent-funded Chinese developer BOKURA (Shanghai Bokura Technology), who had previously received permission from Bandai Namco to develop a mobile version of Blue Protocol together with Project Sky Blue.