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

A character from Aion 2 looks serenely at the screen. — (Image credit: NCSoft)

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:

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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.

Harvey's history with games started when he first begged his parents for a World of Warcraft subscription aged 12, though he's since been cursed with Final Fantasy 14-brain and a huge crush on G'raha Tia. He made his start as a freelancer, writing for websites like Techradar, The Escapist, Dicebreaker, The Gamer, Into the Spine—and of course, PC Gamer. He'll sink his teeth into anything that looks interesting, though he has a soft spot for RPGs, soulslikes, roguelikes, deckbuilders, MMOs, and weird indie titles. He also plays a shelf load of TTRPGs in his offline time. Don't ask him what his favourite system is, he has too many.

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