aion posts

Time is money in most massively multiplayer games. Playing one of them usually means trying to gather in-game cash to continue to play the title. This week some players of NCsoft's recent game Aion got a lot more time to play the game via a bug in the system.

In this case, the bug caused a few Aion players one one server to receive a whopping 30 trillion Kinah (that's what the in-game currency is called). A post on the game's official web site reveals that NCsoft will reset the server and the players on that server back to before the but began. The affected players won't be going back totally empty handed. The message states, "As an apology for the downtime, we'll be rewarding everyone on the Azphel server with five Lodas Amulets later this week."

We thought the hit fantasy MMO, Aion looked amazing when it released in September, but it looks like a new graphics update is in store for the game. What looked great before will be absolutely amazing with new lighting, water and particle effects to truly bring the world to life. It also looks like players may have access to custom housing for virtual life outside of fighting, but the fighting system will be getting some visual enhancements too.

Download HD Aion 'Vision' Trailer (742 MB)
Check out all Aion downloads

After the failures of games like Tabula Rasa, Auto Assault and Dungeon Runners to find an audience, NCsoft has to be happy with the early sales success of Aion in the US and Europe. This week the Korean-based publisher announced that the fantasy MMO sold 500,000 copies in the US after its launch and 470,000 more copies in Europe. In fact sales of NCsoft's games overseas exceeded its local sales for the first time in the company's history.

That caused NCsoft to record a profit of $39.8 million in its last fiscal quarter that ended on September 30. That's a nine-fold increase in profits compared to the same time period a year ago.

It's been a little while since we have seen any lists from the NPD Group on retail PC game sales. The organization decided to no longer release their weekly top 10 PC game sales lists to the media but today they did release their top 20 best selling PC games for the month of September in retail stores.

It's not a shock to learn that NCsoft's fantasy MMO Aion was the number one best selling PC game for the month as it was already selling well in pre-orders online. The Collectors Edition made it to number four for the month. EA's The Sims 3 continues to do well in the number two slot while Cryptic Studios' super hero MMO Champions Online made a strong debut at number 3. Blizzard's MMO expansion World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King made it at number four.

One interesting note before we get to the list itself. Phantom EFX has two of their popular casino PC games in the top 20 list but their hardcore PC FPS Darkest of Days, released in September, failed to make the top 20.

1. Aion - NCsoft
2. The Sims 3 - Electronic Arts
3. Champions Online - Cryptic Studios/Atari
4. World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King - Blizzard
5. Aion Collector's Edition - NCsoft
6. Mumbo Jumbo Assortment - Mumbo Jumbo
7. The Sims 3 Double Deluxe - Electronic Arts
8. World of Warcraft Battle Chest - Blizzard
9. Real Deal Slots Treasures of the Far East - Phantom EFX
10. World of Warcraft - Blizzard
11. Spore - Electronic Arts
12. Grand Theft Auto IV - Rockstar Games
13. StarCraft: Battle Chest - Blizzard
14. Zuma's Revenge - Popcap Games
15. World of Warcraft: the Burning Crusade - Blizzard
16. Batman: Arkham Asylum - Rocksteady/Eidos
17. Real Deal Slots Adventure - Phantom EFX
18. Nancy Drew: Ransom of the Seven Seas - Her Interactive
19. Civilization IV: The Compete Edition - Firaxis/2K Games
20. The Sims 2 University Life Collection - Electronic Arts

Direct2Drive's latest list of its top 10 best selling PC games downloaded for the week that ended October 3 shows that the Piranha Bytes-developed fantasy RPG Risen is at the number one spot. It's an . . .interesting choice since the game has gotten decidedly mixed reviews from critics so far. NCsoft's MMO Aion has fallen back down the list to the number three slot (Standard Edition) and number five (Collector's Edition). The post-apocalypse MMO Fallen Earth seems to have staying power; it's at number two for the week.

Keep in mind that many of the games on this Direct2Drive list were boosted by its $5 sales promotion:

1. Risen - Piranha Bytes/Deep Silve
2. Fallen Earth - Fallen Earth, LLC
3. Aion - NCSoft
4. Mount and Blade ($5 Sale) - TaleWorlds/Paradox Interactive
5. Aion Collector's Edition - NCSoft
6. World of Goo (45 Sale) - 2D Boy
7. Champions Online - Cryptic Studios/Atari
8. BioShock ($5 Sale) - 2K Boston/2K Games
9. Defense Grid: The Awakening ($5 Sale) - Hidden Path
10. Civilization 4 ($5 Sale) - Firaxis/2K Games

Every time a new MMO comes out, it is often heralded as the "WoW killer." The one MMO that will manage to dethrone Blizzard's impossibly popular epic once and for all. This is a ridiculous expectation for any game to have, and thusly, MMOs need to be judge on their personal merits rather than in comparison to how popular they will be beside World of Warcraft. Aion is one of these games, and while it is rather generic, it manages to offer up a good mix of storytelling, graphics, and gameplay that make it a game to at least try out.

It's not exactly a shock to learn that the latest weekly release of Steam's top 10 best selling PC games list has Left 4 Dead 2's pre-order offer at the top. The sequel to Valve's zombie co-op shooter finally was made available for pre-orders just two days ago. It also shows that once again so-called petitions to boycott games have little to no real world effect.

The three day 50 percent off sale for the original Left 4 Dead pushed that game to the number two spot. Aion, NCsoft's MMO, dropped down to the third spot for its Collector's Edition after several weeks at the number one position.

1. Left 4 Dead 2 - Valve
2. Left 4 Dead -Valve
3. Aion Collector's Edition - NCsoft
4. Risen - Piranha Bytes/Deep Silver
5. Aion Standard Edition - NCsoft
6. Batman: Arkham Asylum - Rocksteady/Eidos
7. Counter-Strike: Source - Valve
8. Borderlands - Gearbox Software/2K Games
9. Resident Evil 5 - Capcom
10. F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin - Monolith/Warner Bros. Interactive

You can't escape the fact that NCsoft's MMO Aion is a popular title. Much like this week's list of Steam's top 10 best selling PC games list, the latest such list from IGN's Direct2Drive shows the game on top for the first two spots (Collector's at number 1 and Standard at number 2). The indie-made MMO Fallen Earth also continues to do well at number 3 on the list this week.

As one might expect, this week's list also has a number of games that Direct2Drive put on sale for just $5.

1. Aion Collector's Edition, - NCSoft
2. Aion Standard Edition - NCSoft
3. Fallen Earth - Fallen Earth, LLC
4. Neverwinter Nights 2 - Obsidian/Atari ($5 sale)
5. Assassin's Creed Director's Cut - Ubisoft ($5 sale)
6. Titan Quest Bundle - Iron Lore/THQ ($5 sale)
7. Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir - Obsidian/Atari ($5 sale)
8. Champions Online - Cryptic/Atari
9. BioShock - 2K Boston/2K Games ($5 sale)
10. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic - BioWare/LucasArts

It's stayed at the top for the past several weeks and it show no signs of leaving. NCsoft's hit MMO Aion remains at the number one spot (for the Collector's Edtion) on Steam's weekly list of their top 10 best selling PC games. In at number two is the Standard Edition of the game. The number three spot is a new entry, the post-apocalypse MMO Fallen Earth which just recently became available on Steam.

The entire top 10 list is as follows:

• 1. Aion Collector's Edition - NCsoft
• 2. Aion Standard Edition - NCsoft
• 3. Fallen Earth - Fallen Earth LLC
• 4. Batman: Arkham Asylum - Rocksteady/Eidos
• 5. F.E.A.R. 2.: Project Origin - Monolith/Warner Bros. Interactive
  
• 6. Left 4 Dead - Valve
• 7. Resident Evil 5 - Capcom
• 8. Counter-Strike Source - Valve
• 9. Star Wars: Jedi Knight Collection - LucasArts
• 10. Red Faction Guerrilla - Reactor Zero/Volition/THQ

NCsoft's launch of their fantasy MMO Aion this week in the US has been successful . . . or perhaps too successful, if you catch our drift. Since the game opened its servers for its pre-orders and then officially launched on Tuesday, there have continued to be long queue lines of players waiting hours to sign onto the game's servers.

NCsoft has been trying to cut down the wait times and now our sister site Massively reports that the developer has put a new time limit on the game's private stores. Players have been idling on the servers while supposedly opening a virtual store to sell their items. Now there's a 30 minute time limit for those stores to remain open. More importantly, NCsoft plans to launch a new North American server sometime this weekend. Both efforts should help a lot to reduce wait times to enter the game.