Right now, it seems as if more live service games are being taken offline than ever before. Publishers keep swinging for the fences, hoping to create that massive online hit, but the market is unforgiving. If a game doesn’t make a big splash, it’s often seen as a project that’s better off being scrapped.
Take what happened earlier this week with the MMORPG Blue Protocol. The game reached the end of the road, something Bandai Namco had planned last summer, before it even had the chance to launch in the West. Fortunately, the game’s dedicated fans in Japan knew how to give it a proper send-off—a giant dance party in the town square.
Japanese outlet Nlab, with a nod to Automaton, reported this farewell was anything but ordinary. As the countdown to the game’s January 18 shutdown loomed, spontaneous celebrations erupted, stretching on for some four and a half hours.
Twitter user michsuzu shared a glimpse of the revelry. Videos showed players lining up their avatars and syncing dance animations to the game’s playful flute music. While the tunes set a whimsical tone, I reckon you could layer just about any classic beat over it—think The Prodigy, The Chemical Brothers, or even Faithless’ “Insomnia”—and it would still hit the mark.
Throughout Asterliese, the game’s starting town, players paid their respects with enthusiastic dance moves up until 10 PM, when the servers finally went offline. Both heartfelt and bittersweet, the end came with a farewell message, thanking the community for their unwavering support. After that, players witnessed the servers’ disconnection, marking the end of an eccentric journey for Blue Protocol.
Strangely enough, this isn’t Blue Protocol’s definitive goodbye. Automaton indicates a twist in the tale: the game will find new life as an MMORPG named Star Resonance, created by Tencent-backed Chinese studio Bokura.
So, farewell Blue Protocol? In your own peculiar way, you ‘died’ as you lived.
