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The History of Atreia, Part III
Here ye, hear ye, fellow Atreians! The third chapters of both the Asmodian and Elyos histories have been added to our great library! Join Kineas as he undergoes his own personal ascension and is forced to leave his family behind, or read Rafaela’s discoveries as she speaks of the time when the human race was saved by the appearance of twelve mystical figures.
While the chapters up until now have shown a strong and unified people, the introduction of the Empyrean Lords, and the ongoing war with the Balaur eventually causes rifts to appear, as opinion becomes divided and two distinct camps begin to appear…
Aion: The Tower of Eternity Breaking Beta Test Records in Korea
One of the most highly anticipated massively multiplayer online (MMO) games, Aion®: The Tower of Eternity™ from NCsoft®, is already showing signs of reaching hit status in only a matter of days since open beta testing kicked off earlier this week. Aion is scheduled to launch in Korea within the year and launches in China, North America, Europe and Japan are planned for 2009.
Since Tuesday’s launch of open beta testing in Korea, concurrent user numbers have already jumped to more than 170,000 players, making it the most popular beta event in Korean history. According to NCsoft officials, more than 11,000 people were logged into the game after only two minutes of open beta service. In less than an hour, that number had ballooned to 40,000. Currently the number of concurrent players has leapt up to more than 170,000.
To meet the unprecedented demand by gamers, NCsoft rapidly expanded to 25 servers over the first few hours of opening the beta. Even with the increased number of servers, tens of thousands of people were waiting to enter the game. By the second day of open beta, the game reached the top spot in Korea’s Gametrics web site that rates games that are played in Korea’s PC Café industry.
Aion is an epic fantasy MMO that combines an eastern-style focus on visuals and design with western action-oriented gameplay. In Aion, players must fight to save a beautiful and vibrant world ripped asunder by a celestial war; during their adventures, players will ascend to divinity and earn the ability to fly. Flight adds a fun and strategic dimension to the gameplay of Aion and is integral to combat, exploration, harvesting and more.
“The response we’re seeing in Korea is incredibly exciting,” said David Reid, president of publishing for NCsoft West in Seattle. “Our Aion community in North America and Europe is also rapidly growing. We’ve got aggressive plans for the western launch in 2009”.
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The History of Atreia, Part II
The history of Atreia is as inspiring and immersive as the game itself, and every now and then we receive a token of wisdom and insight from some of those who are most knowledgeable of it. A new chapter each has been added to the Elyos and Asmodian background stories. The experiences and writings of Rafaela, a human living in the bright and vivid Elysea, can be found in the Elyos part of our website’s Background section. If you however wish to rather explore the history of Atreia from an Asmodian perspective, head on over to Kineas, an ascended Asmodian Daeva who will certainly invite you to learn more of his people’s tough struggle.
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Aion Entering Open Beta in Korea
The Aion team in Korea announced that Aion will be entering Open Beta in Korea on November 11th. This is very exciting news for us as well! Since the game has entered its next phase in Korea, we thought we’d take a moment to explain the status of Aion in the west.
We are currently in the process of localizing and culturalizing the game for the western market in order to reach the same level of quality that the game provides and are in heavy planning for our testing phases in North America and Europe. We are taking the utmost care in the localization process and we’re dedicated to releasing the very best product in NCsoft West territories. With the ball now rolling, expect to hear much more, and see much more out of Aion in the coming months.
Be sure to check our Wallpaper gallery and Video section for a few visual updates while you’re at it!
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Visual improvements â Light and Shadows
Take a look at the stunning new light and shadow effects in Aion.
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MMOZine Issue 7 features Aion once again
Recurring visitors are likely to have spotted MMOZine Issues 5 and 6 where various aspects of Aion: The Tower of Eternity were taken a look at. The 7th issue is no worse and welcomes you wholeheartedly into a three page realm of Aion character creation.
You can find the article here!
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Set the Stage: Winning Performances!
Games Convention is over - and we have our final winners.
Every day of Games Convention for one hour, the NCsoft stand turned into an impromptu theatre, as we had characters from Aion (Alma, Namiya) and Guild Wars (Gwen, Reyna) perform the winning scripts for our Set the Stage competition. Now you can see the best of these scripts, our ultimate winners of Set the Stage, on video.
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MMOZine Issue 6 gives Aion 90%
Aion: The Tower of Eternity was recently featured in MMOZine Issue #6, which can be downloaded here (jump to page 21).
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Aion in PCGZine Issue 21
PCGZine Issue 21 is now available for download right over here. The cover story this month is about nothing less than Aion: Tower of Eternity, put together by their team of games journalists.
The six page hands-on preview covers some of the gameplay and mechanics of the game more in-depth than you would traditionally find in a magazine. It also includes some new screens, including a fully annotated skill chain, as well as exclusive videos, desktop wallpapers and an interview with Christian-Peter Heimbach, our Product Manager for Aion here at NCsoft Europe. To take part of the magazine’s contents you will first need to get your hands on Adobe Reader 6 (or later), if your PC does not have it installed already. So, why are you still reading this? Get going already!
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Stay up-to-date with Games Convention, both there and at home
Aion fully playable! A packed show schedule! Quests for great prizes! It’s not enough – we’re going even further with our activities at Games Convention – we’re going fully multimedia!
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NCsoft Europe Ltd. is a company registered in England and Wales with company number 5165702. VAT number: 840 1439 54.
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