There was a time, as with most new MMOs, that Aion was hailed as the “next big thing.” It didn’t exactly turn out that way for NCSoft, but Aion still managed to rope in a relatively solid userbase over the last couple of years. Now, the company is looking for ways to expand its profit margins and bring new players into the fold by making Aion completely free-to-play.

The game officially re-launches on April 11 under the new name Aion: Ascension. This launch comes at the same time as the game’s long-awaited 3.0 update, which raises the level cap to 60 and contains a whole host of content like new zones, houses, mounts and instances.

Here are the key features of a free Aion, as listed by the game’s official site:

• No subscription fee. Play for free!
• No account restrictions. Visit any zone, chat in any channel, sell any amount of stuff on the trade broker—nothing is off limits!
• Robust countermeasures to combat game abuse. We're dedicating a ton of resources to preventing account theft, botting, and real money trading.
• No hassles. Create your account, download the game, and play!
• No harassment. Don't worry, we won't hound you with constant offers or promotions.

If you were curious about Aion but never got around to checking it out (like myself), April might be a good time to give it a look. Hopefully going free-to-play will give Aion a much needed player surge; while the game boasted nearly four million subscribers at its peak, recent trends indicate that number has shrunk dramatically.

Will you play Aion when it goes free-to-play? 

[Gamespot]

Tweet

100% of voters think this story ROCKS!

Vote Now!    (3) (0)