Left for Dead by Amazon, Revived by Tencent: Blue Protocol: Star Resonance Rockets to 90,000 Steam Players—But Only 48% Positive Reviews

Remember Blue Protocol? The flashy anime MMO Amazon was hyping before it got shelved? That thing just re-emerged with a new face. Tencent-backed developer Bokura has revived it as Blue Protocol: Star Resonance, and it exploded on Steam this week. Big player numbers, lots of buzz, and a whole lot of grumbling.

So what actually launched

Blue Protocol: Star Resonance hit Steam earlier this week and almost instantly pulled in over 94,000 concurrent players. It leans into the social, colorful stuff hard: you can race capybaras, team up to smack monsters around, and dive into mini-games that would not be out of place in Genshin Impact.

The vibe on Steam

Numbers are one thing. Sentiment is another. On Steam, the game is sitting at a Mixed rating right now: only 48% of roughly 6,000 user reviews are positive. The two big themes in the complaints are the mountain of currencies and how aggressively the game limits what you can do in a single session.

'Art and style are cool, but that is the end of positive things to say. It is mobile-gamer gacha slop. Everything is time-gated, with limited daily attempts amounting to a list of chores to keep you logging in each day.'

Another widely upvoted take boils it down to this: the game locks you out of story beats, farming, dungeons, mining — basically everything — after a short burst, thanks to energy gauges and daily caps. One reviewer even just listed all the currencies and vouchers they bumped into; they counted 16.

What players are running into

• Big launch pop: over 94,000 concurrent players on Steam earlier this week
• Mixed reviews: 48% positive out of about 6,000, currently tagged Mixed
• Content gating: progress locks on story, farming, dungeons, and mining after short sessions
• Energy systems: nearly everything tied to gauges and daily attempt limits
• Redundant currencies: multiple types floating around (one player counted 16)
• Strong presentation: stylish anime art, co-op monster hunts, capybara races, and Genshin-style mini-games

Big picture

There is real interest here — you do not grab 94k concurrents by accident — but the early friction is hard to ignore. If you like your MMOs built around daily checklists and energy timers, Star Resonance is exactly that. If that stuff makes you bounce, the style and capybaras probably will not save it.

If you would rather park this and play something else, I have a running list of the best MMORPGs worth your time right now.