Gamasutra: With World of Warcraft dominating the high-end online market, many developers have begun to avoid the arena of high-end MMOs. But NCsoft is continuing to tackle the sector, and its next great hope is Aion.
When we spoke with NCsoft corporate relations director Jaesung Lee in Seoul after the Korean launch of Aion, the company was boasting concurrent users peaking at 150,000 just one day after opening, and by the end of 2008 was cornering 15 percent of the market in its native country.
In Korea, the business model is time cards, something other subscription-based MMOs have done in Asian countries (a la WoW in China), but in the US the game will be a standard $14.99 monthly subscription.
NCsoft is generating a lot of buzz in North America with the game, primarily through small open beta tests that began in June of this year. In this interview, we talked to Lee about the decision to tackle the high-end MMO market, the difficulty of launching new titles, and how to meet the ever-changing expectations of new users.
Discover the immersive world of Aion in 2023, complete with deep crafting, aerial combat, and a unique flying system. Join one of two factions and explore the vast land of Atreia, where new challenges and updates await.
Would this be self promotion, I personally don't care but just wonder.
Gameforge and NCSOFT has just announced that they have launched the 7.2 ("Shadows Over Red Katalam") update for their fantasy MMORPG "AION".
DSOGaming writes: "Gameforge has released a comprehensive update for its fantasy MMORPG AION in Europe. As the press release reads, with the launch of version 7.0, Gameforge unlocks the new region of Dumaha with the PvE instance ‘Stella Development Laboratory’ and provides Artist class players with a second specialization to select."
