A sequel to the 2008 MMORPG Aion will release globally later this year, 17 years after the original.
Aion 2 will see a global release via Steam, developer NCSoft announced, with servers for North America, South America, Japan, and Europe. The news comes after Aion 2’s launch in South Korea and Taiwan last November to less-than-stellar reviews, with the game’s microtransactions being a major point of criticism. While the game is technically free-to-play, it does feature optional subscriptions and pay-to-win mechanics. NCSoft apologized for the game’s monetization shortly after launch and vowed to make changes.
What changes NCSoft may make to Aion 2 for its global release are still unclear, though the developer stated in its announcement that more news would be coming in May and it looked forward to answering questions from the game’s community.
The original Aion proved popular, having received numerous expansions over the year. It’s still playable today in multiple different formats, including a “classic” server that recreates the game as it was when it first launched.
Aion 2 takes place 200 years after the original Aion in a world that is 36 times larger and built on Unreal Engine 5, according to the game’s Steam page. Its world is designed with verticality in mind, as players can take to the skies using wings to not only traverse the environment but for combat and exploration. Aion 2’s player-versus-environment content will include solo dungeons as well as dungeons for groups of four and eight players.
When Aion 2 arrives later this year, it will join an ever-growing list of Korean-developed MMOs looking to find success abroad. NCSoft released another free-to-play MMO, Throne and Liberty, in the West in 2024. Though it saw strong concurrent player numbers shortly after launch, it still fell short of other MMO launches like New World and Lost Ark, all three of which were published (or, in New World’s case, also developed) by Amazon.
MMOs as a genre have been in a bit of a rough patch recently, with numerous new in-development MMOs canceled and even existing ones, like New World, soon to be sunset. In just the last year alone, that list of canceled MMOs includes one from former World of Warcraft lead systems designer Greg Street, Project Blackbird from the creators of The Elder Scrolls Online, and a new Warhammer MMO.
