Blue Protocol, the long-awaited MMO by BANDAI NAMCO, immediately closed its servers multiple times less than a day after its official launch. Read on to find out why.
Blue Protocol JP Servers Down Right After Launch
Various Issues On Launch Cause Servers To Go Into Maintenance Multiple Times
Blue Protocol's Japan launch could have been a better one. Plagued with issues involving server load and payment barely a day in, their servers have been forced to shut down twice in one day.
Signs had already manifested before the server was supposed to open on June 14, 2023, at 12 PM JST, when it was suddenly pushed back to a later time, complete with officials apologizing for the delay. Then, just half an hour after the original launch time, it was announced that the server would officially open at 1:10PM JST.
A delay of just over one hour is acceptable, and the servers opened without much of a hitch. However, after a few minutes, problems started to arise again as players were unable to log in or register. This is because the game uses Bandai Namco IDs as login credentials, which put a lot of stress on the servers.
By late afternoon, the problem was still present, and a tweet was made, stating that the team was addressing the situation. Eventually, the servers go into emergency maintenance at 6 PM JST to fix the issues. Interestingly, Blue Protocol wasn't the only game affected by this. Other games that used Bandai Namco IDs were also affected, prompting a server reboot.
Popular gaming page Nmia Gaming posted a rough outline of what happened during the first day, which reads:
- 7:31 The official site started its maintenance, to 12:00 for server launch
- 11:12 The server launch is delayed from 12:00 to a later time, the officials apologizes
- 12:24 After a final confirmation, the server starts at 13:10, we apologize deeply for the inconvenience caused
- 13:35 Although the server is launched, a connectivity issue occurred due to a large amount of players trying to get in, we apologize deeply for the inconvenience caused
- 17:21 Bandai Namco ID login and registration had errors occurred, and is not fixed for now, we apologize deeply for the inconvenience caused
- 17:47 An emergency maintenance will start on 18:00 to fix the known issues, we apologize deeply for the inconvenience caused
- 18:25 Due to many other games and websites that needed Bandai Namco ID to login were also affected, the officials decided to reboot the servers on 18:00 to 20:00, we apologize deeply for the inconvenience caused
Later on, another emergency maintenance had to be conducted at 0:45 AM JST, prompting people to start posting images of the Maintenance meme as a reaction to the update. By then, it had barely been half a day since the server opened, so having a second emergency maintenance within that period is always a good sign. To add to all commotion, BANDAI NAMCO then confirmed an issue regarding online payment through WebMoney and temporarily suspended the service.
The latest maintenance occurred just today at 1AM JST and lasted three hours. Among some quality of life adjustments, it was also done to fix issues regarding WebMoney payments. It is unclear whether BANDAI NAMCO has managed to fix all of the issues regarding the servers. Only time will tell if maintenance will begin again, just as it ended.
Blue Protocol is an open world adventure MMO released in Japan for the PC. A global launch has been confirmed, but a date has not yet been confirmed as of writing.
