Bandai Namco Entertainment announced that Bandai Namco Online will be absorbed in an absorption-type merger on April 1, 2025. This announcement was made after a few notable failures by Bandai Namco Online, such as online first-person shooter Gundam Evolution and free-to-play online action RPG Blue Protocol.
According to the IR release, Bandai Namco Online’s games and businesses, including Idolish Seven, SD Gundam Operations, and Gundam Tribe, will be taken over by Bandai Namco Entertainment after the merger. It’s unclear what effect the merger will have on any unannounced games that were previously in the works at Bandai Namco Online, if any.
This past August, Bandai Namco Entertainment announced that Blue Protocol will be shutting down on January 18, 2025 in Japan. The game’s worldwide release, originally planned for winter 2024, is no longer happening as a result.
Blue Protocol first launched in June 2023 for PC in Japan, but major bugs plagued the game in the months that followed and persisted into 2024. Amazon Games was set to publish Blue Protocol for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam in the west, too. Since Blue Protocol is shutting down, Amazon Games removed its support page for the global version.
Lastly, Blue Protocol is available for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S in Japan until January 18, 2025.
