NC's MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) "Aion 2" is maintaining its initial popularity, holding steady at a peak of 300,000 concurrent users during the second weekend following its global launch. However, as Western users have expressed discomfort with the BM (business model), localization has emerged as a key challenge.
According to game statistics site SteamDB on the 20th, Aion 2, which launched globally on the 5th, recorded a peak of 310,363 concurrent users on Steam on the 18th. This figure represents 78.0% of the initial post-launch peak (397,905 users), indicating high retention rates. It is assessed that the game has sufficiently attracted local users in terms of entertainment value. Aion 2 generated expectations from the moment of its release by surpassing the popularity record of "Throne and Liberty," which NC launched globally in 2024 (336,300 concurrent users).
However, while positive reviews were approximately 73%, they have recently dropped to 58%, leaving the overall user rating at "Mixed." The cause is the payment model. Aion 2 received praise for its "kind BM" due to low payment burdens when it first launched in South Korea and Taiwan at the end of last year, prior to its global release. However, analysis suggests that Western users, who are accustomed to monthly subscriptions or bulk package purchases, feel a sense of alienation toward the "partial monetization" method unique to MMORPGs.
Partial monetization is a BM where starting the game and accessing basic content is free, but purchasing certain items or additional features requires payment. A particular issue with Aion 2 is that its membership product, priced at $14.99 per month (approximately 20,000 won), is applied on a per-server basis rather than across the entire account. This is because users must subscribe to the membership separately for each server if they wish to play on multiple servers. Aion 2 requires a paid membership for using the item exchange and other features.
NC presented "server transfer rights," which allow users to move their created characters to different servers, as an alternative solution. This measure enables players to consolidate their characters onto a single server to apply memberships in bulk, or to move to the same server as friends playing elsewhere. NC is also actively addressing "gold farming," a chronic issue in MMORPGs. Gold farming refers to organizations or groups that mass-collect in-game currency or items for the purpose of selling them for cash, thereby stealing from legitimate users and disrupting the economic system. On the 16th and 17th, NC detected and sanctioned 7,933 and 10,326 abnormal macro and gold farming accounts, respectively.
Complaints also arose domestically. This was because some feedback proposed by domestic users was applied to global servers before it was implemented on domestic servers. In response, NC attempted to quell the dissatisfaction through a recent developer live broadcast. The explanation stated that while modifications or changes could disadvantage some users since domestic server operations have already begun, improvements are possible for the global service as it is just starting out.
Kim Nam-joon, NC PD, stated, "We knew about the issues (discovered while operating the South Korea and Taiwan servers), but we could not release the game without fixing them, so we chose to proceed with the fixes." He added, "Our goal is to apply these changes to domestic servers as soon as possible. Since our main base is in Korea, we will make it even more robust."
in TECH
