Is Silence on Blue Protocol Due to Bandai Namco Online's 'Insolvency' and Incoming Fixes in Japan? |

System · June 24

Is Silence on Blue Protocol Due to Bandai Namco Online's 'Insolvency' and Incoming Fixes in Japan? | MMORPG.com

Bandai Namco Online is "in a state of insolvency" after posting a loss of more than $51 million. The team is also working to add content to fix Blue Protocol's Japanese release.

Read the full story here

Neoyoshi · June 24

Short answer, no.

Long answer, look at their finical books, they are part of the public record and are online; at least what they choose to report, and they made more this year then they did last year around the same quarter, the only thing that went down is what they projected to make in profits.

So in other words, sales went up this year, but their profits went down...

I'm not a math person, but it just looks like their operating costs ate into their profits this time around, which seems 'normal' when you are working on stuff and spending money to keep working on it...

But sure, i guess if you are a big Yakuza boss only expecting profits instead of results, yeah, i guess 'insolvency' is a word (???)

Kumapon · June 24

So Amazon has a failed mmo in the west, a failed mmo in korea, and a failed mmo in japan.

I guess things can only go up from here?

Angrakhan · June 24

Kumapon said:

So Amazon has a failed mmo in the west, a failed mmo in korea, and a failed mmo in japan.

I guess things can only go up from here?

I dunno, they could still get failed MMO's in China, Russia, India, and others. Does anyone have a failed MMO in Indonesia? There's opportunity there! The world is their oyster for failing. They could strive to win at failing! I doubt they want to, though.

Xiaoki · June 24

Neoyoshi said:

Short answer, no.

Long answer, look at their finical books, they are part of the public record and are online; at least what they choose to report, and they made more this year then they did last year around the same quarter, the only thing that went down is what they projected to make in profits.

So in other words, sales went up this year, but their profits went down...

I'm not a math person, but it just looks like their operating costs ate into their profits this time around, which seems 'normal' when you are working on stuff and spending money to keep working on it...

But sure, i guess if you are a big Yakuza boss only expecting profits instead of results, yeah, i guess 'insolvency' is a word (???)

Short and long answer, yes.

Blue Protocol was not published by Bandai Namco Holdings, it was published by a subsidiary, Bandai Namco Online.

And Bandai Namco Online posted a $51 million loss for this fiscal year, and in this fiscal year their only new game was Blue Protocol.

I made a topic about this in the Pub.

Here's the link again

https://automaton-media.com/en/news/bandai-namco-online-in-state-of-insolvency-due-to-8-2-billion-yen-loss-and-negative-net-income/

Dattelis · June 24

I'm pretty sure the silence is so they all hope people forgot it existed.

Neoyoshi · June 25

Xiaoki said:

Neoyoshi said:

Short answer, no.

Long answer, look at their finical books, they are part of the public record and are online; at least what they choose to report, and they made more this year then they did last year around the same quarter, the only thing that went down is what they projected to make in profits.

So in other words, sales went up this year, but their profits went down...

I'm not a math person, but it just looks like their operating costs ate into their profits this time around, which seems 'normal' when you are working on stuff and spending money to keep working on it...

But sure, i guess if you are a big Yakuza boss only expecting profits instead of results, yeah, i guess 'insolvency' is a word (???)

Short and long answer, yes.

Blue Protocol was not published by Bandai Namco Holdings, it was published by a subsidiary, Bandai Namco Online.

And Bandai Namco Online posted a $51 million loss for this fiscal year, and in this fiscal year their only new game was Blue Protocol.

I made a topic about this in the Pub.

Here's the link again
https://automaton-media.com/en/news/bandai-namco-online-in-state-of-insolvency-due-to-8-2-billion-yen-loss-and-negative-net-income/

Yeah, that's frustrating to look at; there aren't a lot of words to say about that, seeing as it's just a graph and an expert stating the obvious: "This isn't normal."

But BP and its development have been anything but "normal. That's why I think I chose 'no' as my short answer; it's half-sarcasm, half-frustration (and I was also in a bit of a rush, sorry, haha); because this is also Japan we are talking about—the place where silence is part of a cultural tradition of praising media in..well, silence; and the only news is bad news, at least when it is crossing over the Pacific anyway.

Also, it is kind of poetic to talk about silence with a Japanese game studio division AND Amazon on the same topic, because Amazon are experts in the art of silence but not in the same traditions as the Japanese.

But thats a lot of money, i just hope Bandai continues to stand behind those guys, because I still think Bandai Namco can afford it.

Morfo2 · June 25

Blue Protocol is not going to release in the West

GrimDogGaming · June 25

I have no clue about the financials, but from all I've heard from those who've played BP, the game is just more mediocre shit. So maybe that's part of the silence.

slowz2secret · June 25

yes, the game is no generating profit as they expected, probably they will close it soon as they usually do.

Neoyoshi · June 25

slowz2secret said:

yes, the game is no generating profit as they expected, probably they will close it soon as they usually do.

Yeah i'm hoping not.

But i wouldn't be surprised. This project has just gone on for too dang long now.

Wroing · June 25

house of hazards said:

yes, the game is no generating profit as they expected, probably they will close it soon as they usually do.

It's actually a sad thing.

cheyane · June 25

What is wrong with Blue Protocol why isn't it doing well? Anyone know why?

cheyane · June 25

He says that it is the lack of content and copy paste dungeon with uninteresting dungeon mechanics. The mobs all freeze up due to a bug when you use too many abilities and you end up taking no damage at all. This bug hasn't been fixed making dungeon grinding boring.

There is also the additional problem where if you have enough damage reduction abilities you take no damage at all. Too many ways to reduce damage taken. Very boring.

When you watch this video you get the impression the game is boring. It looks like there is no saving it. Pity nice looking game. Wish they managed it better.

Xiaoki · June 25

Tocheyane said:

He says that it is the lack of content and copy paste dungeon with uninteresting dungeon mechanics. The mobs all freeze up due to a bug when you use too many abilities and you end up taking no damage at all. This bug hasn't been fixed making dungeon grinding boring.

There is also the additional problem where if you have enough damage reduction abilities you take no damage at all. Too many ways to reduce damage taken. Very boring.

When you watch this video you get the impression the game is boring. It looks like there is no saving it. Pity nice looking game. Wish they managed it better.

The monetization is also insane.

There's gacha for outfits

THREE Battle Passes! One free and 2 paid.

And a cash shop of course.

Which you will need because upgrading your weapons has lots of grind and RNG. The weapon upgrading is one of the worst I've seen, about on the level of Elyon.

Kumapon · June 25

Also their main souce of income is the Skin Gatcha. It costs 2 bucks per pull. It's 110 pulls to hit pity. So if your unlucky, you could be paying $200+ for a costume.

Most people look at that, laugh, and move on to another game.

kitarad · June 25

Kumapon said:

Also their main souce of income is the Skin Gatcha. It costs 2 bucks per pull. It's 110 pulls to hit pity. So if your unlucky, you could be paying $200+ for a costume.

Most people look at that, laugh, and move on to another game.

Holy Greed! They deserve every failure coming their way. Temper your greed developers or else we will abandon your game.

k61977 · June 25

Without talking about the money side of things, sounds like they went the wildstar path and tried to make a game for hardcore gamers. Devs just don't seem to understand that hardcore gamers are a very small percentage of the gaming population, even though they are very vocal. A hardcore game will never have mass appeal as an MMO. It's great for single player games, just not MMO's.

MaxBacon · June 26

Amazon has had experience on the side of things of publishing MMOs with big hype that do not last.

If BP is already doing bad on the east, it's not going to be doing any favours to even the prospects of its future development, especially if they report loss of money/underwhelming profits, publisher wouldn't stand behind the game for long.

In that scenario, Amazon could be a bit more concerned about publishing something with a serious risk of a short-lived run that they'd have to downsize and throw into "maintenance mode" with a smaller playerbase.

But it might be too late to throw away the publishing of the IP on the west, seeing those contracts are probably signed and they already invested money on localization/etc.

End of the day I think Amazon is focused on Throne and Liberty, that despite its weak reception on the eastern market, at least has a stronger development front conducting game changes and upgrades to gain and retain playerbase.

Scot · June 26

kitarad said:

Kumapon said:

Also their main souce of income is the Skin Gatcha. It costs 2 bucks per pull. It's 110 pulls to hit pity. So if your unlucky, you could be paying $200+ for a costume.

Most people look at that, laugh, and move on to another game.

Holy Greed! They deserve every failure coming their way. Temper your greed developers or else we will abandon your game.

It is just cosmetics so it does not bother me, but that does to bode well for P2W elements.

GrimDogGaming · June 26

MaxBacon said:

Amazon has had experience on the side of things of publishing MMOs with big hype that do not last.

If BP is already doing bad on the east, it's not going to be doing any favours to even the prospects of its future development, especially if they report loss of money/underwhelming profits, publisher wouldn't stand behind the game for long.

In that scenario, Amazon could be a bit more concerned about publishing something with a serious risk of a short-lived run that they'd have to downsize and throw into "maintenance mode" with a smaller playerbase.

But it might be too late to throw away the publishing of the IP on the west, seeing those contracts are probably signed and they already invested money on localization/etc.

End of the day I think Amazon is focused on Throne and Liberty, that despite its weak reception on the eastern market, at least has a stronger development front conducting game changes and upgrades to gain and retain playerbase.

Unless their contract lawyers are as incompetent as their game developers, I guarantee Amaxon has an out via a performance clause or two.

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Is Silence on Blue Protocol Due to Bandai Namco Online's 'Insolvency' and Incoming Fixes in Japan? |

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Is Silence on Blue Protocol Due to Bandai Namco Online's 'Insolvency' and Incoming Fixes in Japan? |

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