NCSoft's Aion 2 launched in Korea and Taiwan in November 2025 with massive financial success and equally massive player backlash. The game pulls in over $1.6 million every day while players slam its aggressive monetization, technical problems, and design choices that scream "mobile port."
NCSoft's stock dropped 15% on launch day. Even Korean players, who typically tolerate aggressive monetization, are furious enough to make the company scramble with apology livestreams and promises to "reevaluate systems."
Launch Access Problems
Aion 2 became available in Korea and Taiwan during the third week of November 2025. Getting into the game became the first major problem.
Korean servers required Korean phone numbers for verification. Taiwan servers launched without phone verification, then suddenly added the requirement partway through launch. About half of players couldn't get verification codes, making access a complete lottery.
Players outside Asia who managed to get in faced another wall: ping over 200ms. Boss fights became exercises in frustration where you dodge, the game says no, and you die anyway. Some players used ping reduction software to help, but NCSoft clearly didn't design this version for anyone outside the region.
The Western release won't arrive until the second half of 2026. NCSoft plans to use the Asian launch as a testing ground to figure out what works before adapting the game for Western markets.
Character Creation Limitations
The character creator offers solid customization but falls short of the original Aion's wild flexibility. Where the first game let players create extremely diverse appearances, Aion 2 sticks to standardized options with decent face presets and body sliders.
The Asmodian race got hit hardest. In Aion 2, Asmodians look like recolored humans. All the distinctive features from the original game - glowing red eyes, claws, different posture - have been removed. They're basically identical to Elyos now, just with different skin tones.
The launch class roster includes only seven basic options: Gladiator, Templar, Assassin, Ranger, Sorcerer, Summoner, and Cleric. No Bard, no Gunner, no advanced classes. NCSoft hasn't confirmed if they'll add more later.
Graphics vs World Design
Aion 2 runs on Unreal Engine 5 and looks gorgeous from a distance. The landscapes, lighting effects, and flying whales capture the original Aion's aesthetic perfectly. The music closely mirrors themes from the first game, hitting that nostalgia button hard. Korean developers know how to make visually stunning MMORPGs.
But the world itself feels dead. Beautiful mountains and fields sit mostly empty, populated by scattered enemy groups and small camps with a handful of NPCs. There are no dynamic events, no ambient activities, no environmental storytelling to speak of.
Throne and Liberty, for all its problems, created a world that felt ten times more alive. Aion 2 looks pretty but has zero soul. Players consistently describe it as visually attractive but hollow, which is death for an MMORPG that needs to create an engaging persistent world. It feels more like a mobile game map with better graphics than a real MMORPG environment.
Combat System Problems
NCSoft marketed Aion 2 as having real action combat. Technically it does: dodge mechanics, manual aiming, telegraphed attacks. The execution tells a different story.
The targeting cursor stays visible throughout combat instead of disappearing. Many abilities require a locked target to work. Your character sometimes refuses to attack new enemies because it's still locked onto the old one. Combat feels janky, sometimes amusingly so, sometimes just plain frustrating.
The UI screams mobile port. You tap items to inspect them like on a phone. You can't drag items to your skill bar using normal PC methods. Instead, you click a slot, click the item, confirm. That's mobile interface design copied directly to PC.
The game includes auto-run and auto-combat. The auto-combat feature looks like it got slapped in five minutes before launch. NCSoft promised no autoplay mechanics, then shipped the game with autoplay anyway. This isn't a PC-first game. It's a mobile game with a PC client.
Progression Systems
Aion 2 uses standard Korean MMORPG progression: gear upgrades, wing upgrades, mount improvements, titles, and talent boards. One weird addition involves collecting feathers scattered around the world to increase your flying stamina.
Flying works differently from the original Aion. You can't fly freely like in the first game. Flight runs on a timer, and you grind feathers to extend it. Another broken NCSoft promise about moving away from old systems.
The progression systems stack up to create a massive gap between free and paying players. Each system adds a small power boost, but combined they mean free players climb while paying players take a helicopter.
Aggressive Monetization Model
Aion 2's monetization structure is wild even by Korean MMORPG standards. Two subscriptions, two battle passes, and a cash shop selling direct power increases. The whole package.
First Subscription Locks Core Features
The first subscription costs $13 monthly. Without it, you can't trade with other players, can't access the auction house, and lose basic convenience features. It also lets you convert premium currency to gold, which is straight pay-to-win.
Players need this subscription just to use what most consider basic MMO functionality. Storage access from anywhere, player trading, and the auction house all sit behind this paywall.
Second Subscription Doubles Everything
The second subscription adds $20 monthly on top of the first. It gives double dungeon rewards, faster energy regen, more dungeon runs, better rewards in side content, and double time in PVP zones. The progression boost goes way beyond simple doubling. Both subscriptions together cost $30 monthly. NCSoft sells them as a bundle deal.
Battle Passes Add Another Layer
Two separate battle passes exist, both containing stat-boosting items. Together they run about $50 monthly.
This is mobile game economics running on Unreal Engine 5. Korean players are angry, and this market usually tolerates aggressive monetization. Lineage 2M, one of Korea's most successful mobile games ever, had extreme pay-to-win and players accepted it. Aion 2 crossed a line even for them.
Bot Infestation
Bots infested Aion 2 almost immediately despite the trading restrictions. Free players can still buy from the auction house, which creates an exploit path for bot operations.
The bots follow predictable patterns: randomly generated names, moving in clusters, farming specific profitable activities. Players documented bot presence with screenshots and found bot software already available from providers claiming their tools work.
Bot operators create accounts and immediately rush a specific quest that rewards a skill reset book. The book sells to NPCs for substantial gold. Each quest run takes about eight minutes, letting bots farm millions of gold per hour. That gold then moves through auction house purchases to buyer accounts.
NCSoft responded by making the skill reset book and similar items unsellable to NPCs. But players estimate millions in illegitimate gold already entered circulation before the fix.
The official Aion 2 Taiwan website posted warnings against bot use, calling it "abnormal and malicious behavior" that risks account restrictions. The developers promised to continue fighting illegal programs with access restrictions for detected violations.
The bot problem emerging in week one shocked players who saw Aion 2 as potential MMORPG revival. Now it faces two major crises: monetization controversy and bot infestation.
Financial Success Despite Problems
The controversies haven't hurt Aion 2's wallet. About 1.5 million players logged in daily during the first week across both servers. The game earned roughly $6.5 million in the first two days just from mobile sales.
NCSoft revealed more details in a December 5, 2025 interview with Money Today MTN. The game generates over 2.5 billion South Korean won daily (about $1.6 million). Peak concurrent players hit 180,000 on Korean servers and 160,000 on Taiwan servers daily. NCSoft didn't share total registered player numbers.
The developers estimate annual revenue between 500-600 billion won from Aion 2 alone. That translates to $320-385 million yearly. The financial success is massive regardless of player criticism.
High daily revenue and strong concurrent numbers show market demand exists despite the problems. But sustaining these numbers long-term depends on whether NCSoft actually fixes the design and monetization issues.
Player Reception
Early adopters paint a conflicted picture after putting in time with the game. The music and visuals hit nostalgia buttons perfectly. Some gameplay moments deliver fun.
But the problems pile up fast. One reviewer with about 40 hours played described combat as feeling old and confused instead of modern and responsive. The mobile UI creates constant friction for PC players. The empty world fails to create engaging MMORPG immersion. Add aggressive monetization requiring $50+ monthly for full features and competitive progression, and players outside Asia get told to skip it entirely.
For Western players waiting on the 2026 release, the advice is simple: watch and wait. See if NCSoft makes major changes to pay-to-win systems, combat responsiveness, and world design. Small tweaks won't fix these problems. The game needs complete monetization overhaul and serious improvements to combat and world engagement.
Promises vs Reality
NCSoft's pre-launch marketing promised several things the launch version contradicts. They said no autoplay mechanics, but the game shipped with auto-combat. They promised less pay-to-win than previous titles, but the monetization is more aggressive than Throne and Liberty. They marketed a new era for NCSoft games, but delivered mobile design philosophy on PC.
These broken promises hurt more than the systems themselves. The gap between what was marketed and what got delivered destroys trust in future NCSoft commitments.
Current State
Aion 2 exists in a weird space - financially successful, critically broken. The game makes millions daily with hundreds of thousands of concurrent players while facing legitimate criticism about core design, monetization philosophy, and technical implementation.
Aion 2 functions as a mobile MMORPG with PC compatibility, not a PC-focused MMORPG. The monetization gates basic MMO features behind mandatory subscriptions while selling massive progression advantages. The world prioritizes visual spectacle over environmental engagement. Combat blends action and tab-target without successfully executing either. Bots established themselves in week one despite trading restrictions.
NCSoft acknowledged the problems and promised changes. Their history suggests promises don't always translate to action. The Asian launch serves as a testing period before Western release, potentially allowing course corrections if NCSoft actually responds to feedback.
The game's financial success might actually reduce incentive for real changes. Current monetization generates revenue regardless of criticism, so why change it?
For current players, Aion 2 offers nostalgia and occasional fun buried under serious problems. For prospective players, especially outside Asia, the message is clear: wait for concrete evidence of real changes before investing time or money.
Aion 2's launch shows the ongoing tension in MMORPG development between player expectations and aggressive monetization. Will NCSoft prioritize long-term player satisfaction over short-term revenue? That answer determines if Aion 2 becomes a sustainable MMORPG or just another cautionary tale about launching with broken promises despite financial success.
