At Anime Expo 2026, NEXON Games’ IO Division returned for its third appearance with a booth split between dedicated spaces for Blue Archive and the newly unveiled Project RX, complemented by a developer panel where fans could directly engage with the team. Following our interview with NEXON Games last year, we had the opportunity to reconnect and explore the franchise’s future in greater depth. This time, we spoke with executive director Kim Yongha, deputy project director Lee Junho, and project director Cha Minseo to get their insights on Blue Archive and Project RX.
This interview has been edited for clarity.
Blue Archive Team’s Focus and Appreciation of Fan Engagement
From a development and publishing perspective, what has been the biggest learning in bringing Blue Archive for global audiences?
Kim Yongha: Blue Archive first started live service in Japan, which is the home ground for the genre, so our first concern was how to meet the expectations and needs of the Japanese market. As a Korean developer, we first started our service with the question of how we can make everything that we put in-game sound natural in Japan, but then we expanded that question into multiple regions like Korea, North America, and China. We wanted to make the localization of the content sound natural in each region.
In each region, the terms and memes that anime-genre users prefer differ. From the start, it was impossible for us to catch up, but then we started learning how to adapt thanks to the feedback of our users. This is our third time participating at AX, and we joined this event because we wanted to hear more feedback from the North American senseis. We hope to keep participating in these events more and more in the future so we can improve our quality even further.
The global community has developed a strong meme culture that often spreads beyond the core player base. How do you view this kind of fan engagement, and does it influence the team?
Kim Yongha: I think the fan creation culture is very strong and active, especially for Blue Archive, which inspires the dev team. All the images, illustrations, or the memes that our senseis create go viral. I learned that each region has specific characteristics, and this feedback helps us learn what kind of content users might or might not like in the future.
Professor Smug has become a fan-favorite character since her debut. How do you see her fitting into Blue Archive‘s broader story going forward?
Lee Junho: We know that there is growing anticipation, and Professor Smug is well-loved by our senseis, so we are exploring many things. We try not to spoil anything for future content, but we are putting in our effort and doing our best.
Kim Yongha: I think we received a similar question at last year’s AX panel, and we expect to hear the same question again this year. We can’t say exactly when, but [currently], we have a more concrete idea of how to incorporate Professor Smug in the story, so please stay tuned.
The GSC President has remained one of the story’s biggest mysteries. How important is her role to the current narrative, and what can you say about her place in the larger story?
Lee Junho: We plan to incorporate her story more in Part 2’s narrative, and the Japanese region has already had a sneak peek, so please stay tuned for that story.
With the inclusion of Korean dub in the global version of Blue Archive, are there any plans for Japanese dub or the addition of Chinese dub from the CN server?
Kim Yongha: I believe it’s a tricky thing to deal with because the publishers differ by region. For instance, for Korea and the global version, NEXON is the publisher, for Japan, it’s Japanese Yostar, and for China, it’s Chinese Yostar. Even the Chinese [content] isn’t automatically part of the Japanese region, so we’d need discussions between publishers to incorporate that in other servers. At the moment, we’re not quite sure if there’s a need for the addition of full-story voice tracks (in Japanese or Chinese) for North American senseis, but if we hear more feedback from our senseis in the future, we may actively have those discussions with the other publishers.
Blue Archive has inspired a growing number of fan-made games and community projects. What are your thoughts on that kind of fan creativity, and have any of those projects caught your attention?
Cha Minseo: Since the very beginning of Blue Archive, we’ve seen community projects grow, and we’ve played pretty much all of them on the dev team. Many of them have exceeded our expectations, and it’s really inspiring for the dev team to see them. I don’t want to pinpoint just one project as the best — I just want to make it known that the team appreciates and enjoys most of the fan projects out there. We’re cheering for them.
Are there plans to expand the Blue Archive IP beyond the mobile game, such as into spin-offs or other game types?
Lee Junho: We would love to do a spin-off game. I think TCG could be an awesome fit for Blue Archive, so if there’s any partner out there who’d like to partner with us to make a TCG, we’d love to start a discussion.
Cha Minseo: He’s a TCG fan.
Kim Yongha: It doesn’t have to specifically be a TCG. We’d like to expand our IP to various user bases as well.
Cha Minseo: We’re open to exploring multiple partnerships, so if there’s a partner out there interested in working with us after seeing this interview, please contact us!
The Vision Behind Project RX
Can you share the meaning or origin behind the name Project RX?
Cha Minseo: I want our players to guess the meaning behind that codename. Blue Archive itself started out as Project MX, so you’ll get to hear more about the meaning behind it in the future.
Kim Yongha: You don’t have to think much about the project’s codename itself because we’ve already landed on the title name internally. So you might get to hear that real title soon, and be able to guess what the game is going to be about based on the title.
Project RX seems to be taking a completely different approach from Blue Archive in its art style and tone. What is the core vision and appeal behind this new project?
Cha Minseo: We wanted to bring a sense of closeness, a closer relationship within the game. If you visit our RX booth right now, you can actually play rock-paper-scissors there with the in-game characters. We also wanted to offer something different in the market.
Kim Yongha: For Blue Archive, the relationship is between the students and senseis, and we wanted to offer something different, something closer for Project RX. That’s how it all started. From the beginning, we wanted to offer that close relationship. I hope you can feel that in the game in the future.
Cha Minseo: I think there’s something special about the charm of interaction and eye contact, and I really wanted to include that experience in Project RX.
Could you share what time period or setting you plan to have Project RX take place in?
Cha Minseo: Based on the RX booth design at AX 2026, you can guess the time period, and I’d say that’s the hint. The booth design is based on the actual appearance that’s going to be part of the game, so I hope you can guess how the game is going to turn out to be in the future. That’s one of the fun things you can do while visiting the booth.
Why was Unreal Engine 5 chosen for Project RX, and what advantages does it give the team compared to Unity, for example, for Blue Archive?
Cha Minseo: The head of NEXON Games, Park Yonghyun, is an expert when it comes to Unreal Engine. He’s been using it for quite a while, and it’s one of the reasons why we went for that, because we could secure many talents who have experience with Unreal Engine. Compared to the older version, the current Unreal Engine offers great features and has developed from the past. A massive group of people can work on the same project at the same time, which is a great advantage, I’d say.
The girls in Blue Archive are distinguishable by the iconic halo. Would the characters in RX have something similar?
Cha Minseo: First, I’d like to say that in order to offer something visually distinct for each character is quite difficult in the market.
Kim Yongha: The halo was one of the things that differentiated Blue Archive from other games, and that’s why we wanted to do something similar in the beginning for Project RX as well. But then we were worried that if we forced it too much, then it would become something seen as some other version of Blue Archive, which is something we did not want to go for. So no, we did not incorporate that kind of feature in the game.
Do you expect Project RX to have a similar fanbase or audience as Blue Archive?
Kim Yongha: That’s a very difficult question to answer, but based on the audiences that we’ve met at AX, they seem to have preferences that look similar but not quite. It’s because they have their own domain that they find particularly likable or enjoyable. I think the same can go for Blue Archive and Project RX. The user base might overlap to some degree, but we hope to meet a new player base with Project RX.
Special thanks to NEXON Games for the interview opportunity. Interpretation assistance by Eungyeong Seong.
