There’s been an uptick in the number of live service games drawing to a close recently, or at least, that’s certainly how it feels. Publishers keep swinging for the fences, hoping to score a major online hit, but the competition is fierce. This means that games struggling to capture a massive audience often get the axe.
Take the recent closure of the MMORPG Blue Protocol as an example. Bandai Namco, the game’s publisher, set its end date last summer—before it even made it to Western shores—culminating in its shutdown earlier this week. Fans in Japan weren’t about to let it slip away quietly, though. They organized a celebratory dance-off right in the heart of the game’s virtual town square.
According to a report from Japanese site Nlab (picked up by Automaton), as Blue Protocol’s final day approached on January 18, an impromptu, hours-long dance party erupted.
One Twitter user, michsuzu, shared videos capturing the moment. Players stood in formation, coordinating their avatars’ dancing animations in perfect sync with each other. The game’s whimsical flute music played in the background. Honestly, you could probably swap in any classic party anthem, be it from The Prodigy, The Chemical Brothers, or even Faithless’ “Insomnia,” and it would still fit the mood.
Asterliese, the game’s starting town, became the stage for this heartfelt send-off. From about 5:30 PM Japan time straight until the game’s shutdown at 10 PM, avatars grooved mournfully in solidarity. As things wound down, players received a heartfelt farewell message thanking them for sticking around until the very end, right before a last twitch as the servers faded into oblivion. So, rest in peace, Blue Protocol. You lived a strange existence, and for those who danced your final steps, your memory won’t easily fade.
In a twist fitting for its unusual journey, Automaton noted that Blue Protocol’s story isn’t quite finished. It’s slated for a revival as a new MMORPG called Star Resonance, courtesy of Bokura, a Tencent-backed Chinese studio.
So, um, RIP Blue Protocol? You ‘passed on’ much like you ‘lived’ – in a wonderfully quirky way.
