The MMORPG Aion is gaining traction in Korea, despite experiencing challenging times in recent months. The reason is the launch of a Classic Server.
What is the current status of Aion? The latest financial report from publisher NCSoft painted a rather bleak picture of the MMORPG. The 2nd quarter of 2020 was the weakest since its release in 2008. While the player base is somewhat stable, the online RPG currently stands in the second tier.
What has changed now? The current chart rankings from Korea suddenly present a very different picture, as the website Game Meca shows. Aion has managed to rise 6 places in the last week and is currently positioned at rank 7. At the beginning of August, it wasn’t even in the top 20.
Thus, the MMORPG has even surpassed strong titles such as World of Warcraft, Valorant, and the extremely popular Lineage 1 in Korea. Aion is currently experiencing a strong boom in Korea – even though a continuation has already been announced as a mobile MMORPG.
Aion rises like a phoenix from the ashes
What is the reason for this boom? On November 11, a Classic Server of Aion went live in Korea. This brings the MMORPG back to version 1.2, quite far back to the early days. The server is planned to be gradually expanded up to version 2.7. It is unclear whether NCSoft will then shut down the server or if it will simply stop receiving updates.
Players are essentially expected to relive the story of Aion. From the beginning to the current version. How long the server will run is uncertain.
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New is that players receive significantly more rewards than they do in the regular version.
The server is doing really well, evident not only in Aion’s chart placement but also in the fact that the server is full. Videos show how crowded the Classic Server of Aion is:
Is this server also coming to us? It is currently unclear whether a Classic Server will also launch in countries outside of Korea. However, the success that Aion is currently celebrating in Korea could lead to NCSoft also starting such a server in Europe and the USA. But this has not yet been confirmed.
NCSoft is currently working on another MMORPG titled Project LW. However, it is not yet known what this is about.
