Bandai Namco announced the end of the anime MMO Blue Protocol in August 2024, setting the date for its demise as January 18, 2025.
Fans made their displeasure known, but when the sad day finally arrived they met it with grace and style, dancing and partying into their final oblivion.
As reported by Automaton Media, the last hours of Blue Protocol saw players gather in the game's starting town of Asterliese for an impromptu farewell dance.
The numbers were initially small, but it didn't take long for others to join. Videos of the virtual rave were shared on X by michsuzu, who wrote, «When the world ends, people just dance»: 今日22時にサービス終了するブループロトコル。街中でひたすら踊ってたら、周りのプレイヤーのみんなもひたすら踊ってた。世界が終わる時、人はひたすら踊るのだ・・・ https://t.co/ICU8aRUCf9 pic.twitter.com/ibROLY8p3QJanuary 18, 2025 Titania Gaming on YouTube caught the final 10 minutes of the festivities, and a much larger crowd, from a different angle: As we wrote in 2017 when the Asheron's Call community came together to mourn its final moments, saying goodbye is never easy.
Blue Protocol wasn't an especially long-lived MMO—it launched in Japan in 2023, and a planned global release never happened—but even in that relatively short period of time, a lot can happen: communities are built, and friends and memorioes are made.