Despite microtransaction woes at launch, MMO sequel Aion 2 will go global this year

Aion 2, NCSoft’s sequel to the original Aion set 200 years after the original game, launched in November of last year to some mixed opinions about its microtransaction schemes—that doesn’t appear to’ve stopped the sequel from picking up steam, though. Literally, it’ll be coming to Steam as part of a global release later this year.

Per this news post, Aion 2 will be arriving to North America, South America, Japan, and Europe some time in 2026:

“At launch, AION 2 will be accessible globally and will maintain servers in four regions with in-game language options for English, French, German, Spanish (Spain), Portuguese (Brazil), Japanese, Korean, Russian, and Chinese (Simplified & Traditional).”

The question is: Has NCSoft made good on its promises last year to change things in time for this global launch? Things were so bad that the developer had to issue an emergency apology after the game went live in Korea and Taiwan last year, stating that they “were complacent and unthoughtful.”

While I can’t speak to it personally, I wouldn’t hold my breath for a completely revitalised game with zero Pay to Win elements whatsoever. This is, after all, NCSoft making a free-to-play MMO.

Even so, it’s not like any of these things have stopped the developer making bank. Aion reportedly made $68 million in the first month and a half of its release with over 1 million subscribers. This earnings report from earlier this year also signals that the game’s been trucking along just fine on the balance sheets, responsible for a 12% bump in revenue for the quarter.

In other words, it’s not surprising NCSoft’s aiming at a global release—it remains to be seen whether other audiences can stomach those same monetisation woes, though. It’s an unfortunate quirk of the genre that, while we all might complain about FOMO mounts and the like, they do seem to make companies bank regardless of how many pitchforks get waggled.

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