Bandai Namco is setting its sights on capturing some of that anime-style MMO market. It's a part of gaming that's already quite full thanks to games like Wakfu and Elsword Online. It's even attracted the bigger studios, who bring high-production titles such as Final Fantasy XIV and Phantasy Star Online 2. The latter of the two is particularly interesting as it recently made waves by being featured at the Xbox E3 presentation of all places. Since this niche is so stuffed, Bandai Namco is going to need to bring out the big guns. It looks good so far with Blue Protocol.
That being said, this one image is pretty much all we have. A simple two-page announcement was put forth by Bandai Namco Japan to basically say that this game exists and will be playable someday. Thanks to Gematsu, we can glean a little more from it.
First, the game's logo contains a tagline written in English.
“The world is on the brink of devastation, now is the time to unite. March on with friends and strangers, and defeat foes beyond your might. Travel through space and time, to change the future beyond this fight!” it reads.
So... it sounds like every MMO ever so far, with a dash of time travel. What gives us hope, however, is that it's a joint effort by Bandai Namco Online and Bandai Namco Studios. That means that many people behind the Tales series, including the gorgeous-looking Tales Of Arise, are involved in this game. As we can see from the one promo image, Blue Protocol seems to be going for that same visual excellence.
Also of importance is that it utilizes Unreal Engine 4. Bandai Namco looks to be going big with this game, perhaps even reaching for the heights of the Tales series but with an online multiplayer component. It's far too early to tell if the game can achieve those lofty aspirations, but it's off to a great start.