"A difficult decision."

A few days ago, the MMO online game "Blue Protocol", developed and operated by Bandai Namco, announced that it would be discontinued in early 2025, and this Japanese server will be officially launched on June 14, 2023, and the total operation time will only be 14 months. According to Bandai Namco Online's financial report, in the past two years, they have accumulated losses of up to 14 billion yen (equivalent to about 679 million yuan) and are in a predicament of insolvency. Although Bandai Online is still operating other games, such as "Gundam: Evolution" and "IDOLiSH7", judging from the official website, Bandai Online currently shows two core products, one is "Blue Protocol" and the other is "Gundam OW". Bandai Namco, as the parent company of Bandai Online, can also be said to have done its best. Last year, Bandai Namco's sales reached the highest level so far, at 10.502 trillion yen (about 48.73 billion yuan), but don't worry, these performances are mainly supported by rubber guys and IP fans, and the game business accounts for the lowest proportion. Bandai did not hesitate to cut at least five games under development last year, and also left "Blue Protocol", and now the bad news is coming, and it is impossible to say whether Bandai will be able to do online games in the future.

A wrong move is a good move

When "Blue Protocol" was launched in 23 years, it ushered in a wave of small climaxes, and the server was full for a few days before the launch, and according to Japanese media reports at the time, the number of people online at the same time in the first week of the service also reached 200,000, and broke the online game record of Bandai Namco. For a local game that only had Japanese servers at the time, this result was enough to open the champagne.

Whether at home or abroad, many people at that time touted it as the killer of "Genshin", many domestic anchors have started broadcasting to the game to attract traffic, the community Chinese station also spontaneously translated the game, and its producers abroad even threatened to operate the game for 20 years. At least in terms of the amount of topics, it defeated "Genshin Impact", but unfortunately, "Blue Protocol" is almost the peak of its debut. After the game exploded, it was not thinking about expanding the server, but the brain circuit strangely blocked the IP of foreign players, focusing on a "If you can't solve the problem, you can solve the problem". For Japan games, in fact, it is not a big deal to lock the region and block the IP, before the "Fate Go" national server came out, this game also locked the IP. And games like DMM will also lock the IP, but they will also turn a blind eye, so as not to be as stunned as Bandai. How far has the Bandai IP demon been stunned? "Blue Protocol" not only bans the player's machine code, but also the extent of the ban is unheard of, even the Japanese themselves will be killed by mistake, and it is estimated that Japanese players do not know who this game is going to play for. Many players ridiculed that the good game was played as a "battle royale", and the most classic was a domestic guild, and a family photo was taken the day before, and there were only two people left the next day. As the saying goes, "A man is dying, and his words are good", but Bandai insisted on IP banning even after announcing the news of the suspension of service, and it is speculated that Bandai is now using AI scripts to ban accounts, and the intensity has not weakened at all. Many domestic netizens said that "self-inflicted sin cannot live" and "if you don't make money, you are a real cow". Some people may be curious, it's 2024, and players understand the truth of "out of the sea if you don't go to sea", but why is the group of old people who do online games in Japan "stuck" in this regard? The most basic reason, of course, is xenophobia, and it is necessary to protect the players in the country first. For example, in the FF14 international server, there is a widely circulated meme such as "Japan who are uneasy". If you join the Japan team but don't say hello properly, it is really possible that they will be bullied on Twitter because of this incident. The second is the lack of technical strength, coupled with the misjudgment of the potential of the local market. In fact, in addition to online games such as "ff14", which have the ability to operate globally, it is common for other Japan online games to maintain servers once a day. At the same time, although the Japan PC game market is on the rise and is a blue ocean market, it is also a recognized fact that the overall situation is relatively underdeveloped, and choosing to launch a multiplayer MMO in this "transition stage" can only be unsuccessful. The other is to prevent illegal "RMT" (free online transactions with cash) outside the studio, for example, "Phantasy Star Online2" also allowed players to connect directly when it first started, but this also led to an influx of foreign players, which in turn gave rise to a large number of studios and illegal RMT activities. Later, I had to re-ban the IP, and the situation improved. Back to "Blue Protocol", in our concept, multiplayer MMO is a category that needs to be supported by popularity, and the more people, the better, but the high-intensity IP blocking of "Blue Protocol" is undoubtedly contradictory to the operation idea of MMO. From the player's point of view, the IP ban is a small matter, but "the project team is like this, and there may be more chaos in the future", so I will also give the game a low score in my heart. But on the other hand, if you look at it from Bandai's point of view, let them open a global server like "Genshin", the technical power will not be able to keep up in the first place, and if you force local players in Japan to socialize, they will not buy it, so "Blue Protocol" has entered a dead end no matter how you look at it.

"Quality is king" is still the iron law of the industry

In essence, "Blue Protocol" is still "praised" because of the poor quality of the game itself. You may say that the gameplay of online games in Japan does not seem to be very high, and with the characteristics of the local market of Japan, even if you do it, you can live a nourishing life. But it's a pity that "Blue Protocol" is not blessed by the original IP book congenitally, and the day after tomorrow is not even willing to do it. The game was established in 2014, and when the project was first established, they said that the game graphics were inspired by "The Legend of Selda", and they also wanted to get a piece of the MMO market because they were hungry for the popularity of online games such as "Final Fantasy 14" ("FF 14") and "Phantasy Star Online2". Nine years later, "The Legend of Zelda" released a sequel, and "FF 14" also accumulated nearly ten years of operational experience and became the "phantom god" in the MMO world, but "Blue Protocol" was officially launched on the Japanese server at this time. Let's talk about high emotional intelligence, Japan has the craftsmanship spirit of Japan, and it will never be released without polishing the game to the best state. Low EQ is a game that is outdated and a bit out of step with the times. In June this year, the project team was interviewed by Famitsu, saying that the team "has a bit of a misplaced perception of the target audience", saying that they belong to the "hardcore faction" in the MMO player group, so they introduced some heavy MMO mechanics (such as high repetition and low drop rate) in "Blue Protocol", but in fact, "Blue Protocol" has attracted more casual players because of the two-dimensional painting style, and these mechanisms are difficult for this group of casual players to accept. From the perspective of the matrix, the gameplay of "Blue Protocol" is not so much hardcore as ancient. In terms of cultivation, it is still an older generation of things, for example, level 40 completes a series of indicators to unlock level 40 weapon blueprints, and after the materials are forged according to the drawings, the level will be level 50 again, and the level 40 weapons are obviously not enough, so you must unlock the level 50 weapon blueprints again and create new weapons. In terms of mission design, in addition to the main line, it is the same, basically farming monsters, handing in materials, etc., and many players feedback it is like "going to work and going to jail". And this set of gameplay is basically similar to the gameplay of the FF14 1.0 period, you must know that FF14 1.0 is not feasible with life verification, if it is not for Yoshida Naoki to take over and redo the 2.0 version, FF14 may also be difficult to gain a foothold in the new era. Of course, "Blue Protocol" is still full of two-dimensional flavor in terms of painting style and cutscenes, and now Tencent has won the right to develop and operate the mobile game of "Blue Protocol", and also uses its art resources to develop a large world multiplayer game called "Codename: Star", as for whether it is a grave or reincarnation in the end, it can only be seen in the follow-up performance. Conclusion

Since "Blue Protocol" has chosen the path of "ACG +", it is inevitable to compare it with a new generation of ACG products such as "Genshin Impact". More precisely, the real challenge for Blue Protocol is not how to compete with Genshin Impact, but how to deal with the reality that "players have become increasingly discerning about their tastes" over the years.

With the rise of China's second-tour market, it has gradually become a force to be reckoned with in the international market. On the contrary, the Japan game market has gradually lost its former dominance, and it is difficult to produce explosive models. According to Bloomberg, Tencent and NetEase have recently reconsidered or scaled back their strategies in the Japan game market to find new growth points. Thirty years in Hedong, thirty years in Hexi, the speed of change of the times may be far beyond imagination, for the "Blue Agreement", we see it as a test of Bandai's local market in Japan, and we only hope that these Japanese factories can grow more in the future.

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