Blue Archive will move Japanese publishing from Yostar to Nexon in January
Blue Archive’s new tank-racing event begins on 28 October, alongside fresh systems, anniversary plans and the planned Yostar-to-Nexon handover.
Blue Archive will change hands in Japan next year, with Nexon taking over domestic publishing from Yostar around January 2027. The companies announced the move during the official “Blue Archive Live! Autumn Night, How Are You?” broadcast, while stressing that the change is not a service shutdown. 1
The transfer is now accompanied by a substantial in-game update. A new event, Start Your Engines! — Forever No. 183!, will begin after maintenance on 28 October and run until 10:59am on 11 November. Players can recruit the new one-star student Rana by taking part, while the event also adds a tank-racing mini-game and a one-on-one boss stage. 2
What is changing
Yostar currently publishes Blue Archive in Japan, while Nexon Games develops the school-themed story RPG. After the handover, Nexon will take responsibility for development, operations and publishing in the Japanese market. Existing items, Pyroxenes and player data are expected to carry over, with the final transfer timetable still to come. 1
The October event adds the dedicated items Player Passes, Gehenna Cup Tickets and cheering flags. Player Passes are spent in “Go for Broke! Gehenna Cup!”, the new mini-game where players drive a tank towards the finish before running out of fuel. A boss stage pits the player’s tank against another in a one-on-one battle. 2
The event’s limited recruitment banners will feature Hifumi (Racing) and Azusa (Racing), both three-star students. The same maintenance also introduces recruitment history, Companion Practice — which lets players deploy certain students without having recruited them — and the beta version of Virtual Aptitude Testing, which challenges players to field multiple squads. 2
Six years and a new publisher
The broadcast also revealed the sixth-anniversary live event Blue Archive Fes! Rock with Me, scheduled for 23 and 24 January 2027 at Makuhari Messe. Other announcements included pop-up shops, a Sunshine Aquarium collaboration and a nationwide stamp rally running from 25 December to 17 January. 2
Nexon says the Japanese publishing change is expected around a late-January update, but the exact date and maintenance window have not been fixed. Players should use Nexon’s transfer page for the confirmed schedule and account-linking instructions rather than treating the broad January window as final. 1
Our opinion
The publisher handover remains the biggest long-term question, but this broadcast gives Japanese players something more immediate to focus on. The new event is unusually substantial for a transition-period announcement, combining a recruitable character, a tank mini-game and several system additions rather than offering only anniversary merchandise. That does not remove the need for a clear transfer checklist, especially around account linking and maintenance downtime, but it suggests the service is continuing at full speed while the companies prepare the operational change.