BANDAI NAMCO Online and Bandai Namco Studios have announced that Blue Protocol, their jointly developed online RPG, has surpassed 600,000 total players. The game has also reached a peak concurrent player count of 200,000.

Blue Protocol is set on the planet Regnas, a fantasy world filled with a mysterious light known as Engram. Players take control of a protagonist who has amnesia. After being rescued by a young demi-human girl named Feste, they set off on a journey together. As an MMO, players live and adventure within the same world alongside each other. They can enjoy various activities, like exploration, hunting, crafting, and raids.

After being delayed a few times, Blue Protocol was finally released in Japan on June 14. Over 600,000 players are already enjoying the free-to-play title, and it is also worth mentioning that it reached a peak of 200,000 concurrent players. Even if it was only for a short time, you can see why hitting 200,000 is such an impressive feat by taking a look at Steam Charts, which show that only a handful of games surpass that number (SteamDB). It’s also important to remember that the game is currently only available in Japan. It has accomplished these numbers before even launching in the West or the rest of Asia and is currently only playable on PC. This achievement also makes Blue Protocol the fastest growing title in the entire history of Bandai Namco’s online game business.

The development and operation teams sent out the following message via a press release:

“We are thrilled to have been able to officially launch Blue Protocol and to see so many players enjoying the game. We would like to express our deepest gratitude to all the players who participated in beta tests and provided feedback, as well as all those who have supported and encouraged us throughout the development period ever since the game was first announced.
We understand that users have been experiencing difficulty logging in right after the service launched and that the game is in an unstable state with a number of issues, so we apologize for the inconvenience caused to those who have been looking forward to playing. Please rest assured that the entire team is continuing to work towards providing a stable service.
The development and operation teams are putting forth our greatest effort to ensure that Blue Protocol can deliver an amazing experience to all gamers in the future.”

Blue Protocol has enjoyed a strong start, but as with all online games, it will be important to see if it can continue to keep players engaged. There are still big developments in store for the game, with future releases on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S in addition to the worldwide launch planned for 2024. It will be interesting to see whether the game can continue to successfully draw in players during those periods.

Written by. Marco Farinaccia based on the original Japanese article (original article’s publication date: 2023-06-20 12:30 JST)