Key Highlights:
- Blue Protocol: Star Resonance had over 90,000 players on Steam.
- The game however sits with a Mixed rating on Steam.
- Despite defying all odds, there may not be a future for the game.
The much anticipated Blue Protocol is finally out in the form of Blue Protocol: Star Resonance, after a rather long wait and series of delays. That being said, the game is currently drawing in a ‘Mixed’ rating on Steam, much to the disappointment of many.
However, this is while being close to a million concurrently active players on the platform, which does seem to defy expectations. With that in mind, here’s what you really need to know about the game, and of its possible future.
Blue Protocol: Star Resonance Draws in a Healthy Number of Players During Its Steam Launch
Blue Protocol: Star Resonance is doing surprisingly well on Steam, racking in over 46,000 concurrent players as of the time of writing this article, as per SteamDB charts. This was preceeded by a 24 hour peak of 94,459 which is especially impressive considering that the game is barely over a day old.
For the uninitiated, Blue Protocol: Star Resonance started life as simply Blue Protocol, an anime styled MMO from Bandai Namco. The game had its initial release in Japan, and was slated for a global launch, which was ultimately scrapped.
Tencent’s Bokura has since picked up the project where the initial team left off (past its shut down in Japan), re-releasing it as Star Resonance.
Star Resonance is poised as a free to play game across PC (Steam, Epic Games store) and mobile (Android, iOS) in multiple regions.
However, not everything is perfect here – especially when we take into consideration its Steam ratings, which sit at a mostly ‘Mixed’ rating, with a ton of negative reviews to go along with it.
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Most Steam reviews seem to hit the nail on the head with regards to the complaints, which range from common issues with gacha games, and an overabundance of microtransactions and a dozen or so confusing currencies to keep track of.
The user interface is also noted to be rather overbearing, with many criticizing its lackluster design and confusing nature, which makes the game more of a chore than it already is.
That being said, there is a reason why Blue Protocol: Star Resonance managed to rack up some impressive numbers on Steam.
After all, the game was noted to be highly anticipated (prior to the cancellation of the Japanese version), and mustered a fair amount of intrigue from players. The free to play nature of the game also helped, as did the now growing niche of anime open world MMORPGs, spearheaded by the release of the mammoth Genshin Impact from HoYoverse.
There May Not Be Much of a Future Here
With all these controversies in mind, things aren’t exactly looking good for developer Bokura. The game’s negative reviews keep piling up, and whatever action the dev team takes right now might be too little, too late.
The game has also seen a sharp decline in player count since its launch, losing nearly half of its player base today, a rough indication of things to come.
Even worse is the fact that blue Protocol failed in its Japanese market during its first launch, which does not instill any confidence.
These are fundamental issues that should have been tackled from the get-go, and the game really can’t exist in a vacuum – there are a ton of competitors, many of whom offer a way superior experience compared to Star Resonance.
This makes it tough to recommend the game, on fear of it dying it out slowly over time, which is the unfortunate fate for many MMOs.
