aion-the-tower-of-eternity posts

Last fall, NCsoft was praising the US and European launch of its Korean-developed fantasy MMO Aion. The publisher said the game sold a total of close to 1 million copies in both regions. However it looks like the game has failed to keep a number of its players after the launch last September.

This week NCsoft announced that the Aion development team took a look at the game's player count and concluded, "most of our servers didn't have ideal populations." The decision has been made to merge (i. e. shut down) a number of Aion's servers to increase the population of the remaining servers. There's no word yet on how many servers will be affected or when it will happen but details are promised "in the coming weeks." In the meantime a major new patch for the game will be released on June 2 while a large content patch (2.0) is planned for release in the US sometime this fall.

[Via Massively]

With just a few days to go before the launch of Aion in the US, NCsoft has started the open beta test for their long awaited CryEngine-based fantasy MMO. From now until September 13 you can freely download and play in the beta before the full game finally launches in the US on September 22.

There's apparently been some issues with the open beta test in terms of online lag being experienced by some players. A note on the game's official web site states, "We believe we have resolved the issue, but we will aggressively work to continue to improve and prevent similar issues." Other issues with the game's authentication servers, its internal security program GameGuard and other issues are also being addressed.

We've already talked about NCsoft's plans for a fancy Collector's Edition of their upcoming MMO Aion but what about if you pre-order the game before it's released? NCsoft has got you covered there as well with a lot of pre-order special offers

People who pre-order the Collector's Edition (limited to 35,000 copies) and the first run of the standard edition will get access to all of the remaining beta events for Aion. Those players can also get a 48 hour head start on the final version before it can be accessed by everyone else. There are also a number of special in-game items for pre-order players (you can see one of them in the screenshot to the right). Finally pre-orders can enter a sweepstakes for a chance to win prizes including an Alienware notebook. The game is due for release in the US this fall.

NCsoft may not be attending E3 2009 this year but the MMO publisher has some major news to report today. Their fantasy MMO title Aion will get a big Collector's Edition version when it releases in the US later this fall (Aion has already launched in NCsoft's native Korea).

The contents of the $69.99 Collector's Edition (besides the actual game of course) include a hand-painted figurine of Aiva, a winged Asmodian Daeva from the game (pictured above). It will also contain a number of exclusive in-game items, two exclusive in-game emotes for your character, a Aion soundtrack CD, two dual-sided posters and a quick reference card.