Your adventures in Aion begin this September! NCsoft is proud to announce that Aion launches in North America on September 22, 2009 and makes its official debut in Europe starting September 25, 2009.

Not only can you find the game at your favorite retail store, Aion will also be available as a digital download at NCsoft.com, Direct2Drive, and through Steam this September.

Don’t forget to take advantage of the special preorder promotion at participating retailers now to receive access to the Closed Beta events as well as a head start to your journeys in Atreia.

Take to the skies and become a part of a stunning world brimming with otherworldly inhabitants, mysterious enemies, and ancient secrets. Become a part of Aion this fall!

Visit IGN.com now to check out the first of four video podcasts from the Aion team. Hear directly from the NCsoft West team as they talk candidly about the world of Aion and its inhabitants, as well as their own thrilling experiences in Atreia.

Take a peek inside the NCsoft office in Seattle and feast your eyes on never-before-seen scenes from the game in this exclusive video podcast!

The second Aion closed beta event kicks off this weekend Friday, June 19th (12:00 PM PT, 9:00 PM CEST, 8:00 PM BST) and ends Monday, June 22nd (12:00 PM PT, 9:00 PM CEST, 8:00 PM BST).

For this event, enthusiastic testers will focus on the beginning player experience for the Asmodians as well as testing server stability and live launch simulation. Take the time to read the story of your quests, pay close attention to the words of the NPCs sharing their knowledge with you, and explore the first ten levels in the shadowy world of Asmodae during this weekend’s exciting beta event.

If you’re a part of this weekend’s closed beta event, drop by the official beta forums beginning on June 18 to share your reports and experiences.

Thanks to the diligence and reporting from the first closed beta event, this weekend’s event also features several updates and changes in the game content:

- Updated with culturalized content for Asmodian levels 1-10
- Updated UI at login screen
- Localization fixes for various in game maps
- Fixed various NPC messages
- Initial zone channels increased from 4 to 10
- Server queue added

Coming Soon!

- Localized voice overs for cut scenes
- Localized tutorial videos
- In game pre-rendered movies
- More culturalized content for Asmodae
- Culturalized content for Elyos
- Community Events

Participants in the closed beta events will also be excited to hear that the NDA has been lifted. Chat, blog, post, and tweet about your experiences in Aion!

Wondering about even more upcoming beta events? Check out the current closed beta schedule below and plan now for your fun-filled summer in Atreia.

Upcoming Closed Beta Events

Closed Beta Event #3 - July 2-July 6
Focus: Asmodian levels 1-20

Closed Beta Event #4 - July 17-July 20
Focus: Elyos and Asmodian levels 1-25

Closed Beta Event #5 - July 31-August 3
Focus: TBD

Closed Beta Event #6 - August 14-August 17
Focus: TBD

As always, stay tuned to the official web site and the Aion team Twitters (@aion_ayase, @aion_amboss, @aion_liv, and @aion_xaen) for more news and your chance to be a part of the closed beta.

It’s almost time to spread your wings and take to the skies! Get an early start to your adventures in Atreia by pre-ordering Aion, now available at participating retailers, including GameStop, Amazon, Best Buy and EB Canada.

Pre-order Aion to receive:

- Guaranteed entry to all scheduled beta events
- Early access to the servers at launch
- Special game benefits including character and server pre-selection privileges
- Exclusive in-game digital items

Your character will enter the world of Aion in style with an exclusive Black Cloud Hat and Lodas’ Amulet, as well as one of five different Ancient Rings of Power.

In addition to these extraordinary in-game items and early access, North America pre-order participants also have a chance to win an Alienware Area-51® m15x gaming notebook and other fantastic prizes! In order to qualify to win, players must pre-order and participate in Aion beta events. Visit the official pre-order page for more information and contest terms and conditions.

Check out this video interview with Associate Producer Lani “Liv” Blazier on the Electric Playground! Lani gives you the rundown on the story of Aion, shares the scoop on why you should play, and more in this electrifying interview.

Visit Electric Playground now to watch the video showcasing the “hot-looking-game” coming this fall!

In the spring of 2005, a little game called Guild Wars came roaring into existence hot on the heels of a series of highly successful beta weekend events. For a game that ultimately took traditional MMO conventions and turned them on their ear, offering capsulated experiences leading up to launch rather than a full-blown open beta served to build up a critical mass of hype. Four years and over six million units later the Guild Wars franchise is still going strong, even after launching during a window of time when the World of Warcraft snowball effect was picking up speed and showing no signs of slowing down.  

A major contributing factor to the success of those weekend events was the fact that players were being exposed to a game that was extremely polished and ultimately fun to play on many different levels. Between events communities and guilds were formed as players contemplated not only what they wanted to achieve with their characters during the next event, but after the launch of GW as well.

When I first learned that NCSoft would be following a similar approach by hosting a series of beta events for Aion leading up to launch, I couldn’t help but consider this a smart move. Only time will tell whether Aion will become another MMO success story in the pages of the NCSoft history books, but if this weekend was any indication, Aion has certainly set the stage for what I’d consider to be the first true blending of an eastern approach to game design delivered in a distinctly western wrapper.

For the kickoff event, players were allowed to create characters from the Elyos and advance them up to level 20, with the Asmodians and higher level content presumably earmarked for future weekend events. The character creation process itself is fairly straight forward, though ended up being far more robust than I’d originally envisioned thanks to a slick interface revealed after making your core class selection; Warrior, Scout, Mage or Priest. On the cosmetic side, dozens of preset combinations and hairstyles are available as is the option to fine-tune specific facial features and body parts.

One thing that stood out for me is that players are able to create believably young or even outwardly haggard characters rather than simply sticking to the realm of unearthly beauty that’s typical especially of female characters in MMOs. The most dramatic shifts can be seen on the male end of the spectrum, though expect to wade through a high volume of overly androgynous preset options in the process of tweaking a character to your liking. Another nice touch is allowing players to toggle starting and more advanced armors to give you an idea what your character might look like decked out in high end gear. So for example if you wanted to create a crazy hobo assassin and are curious to see what they might look like with a giant unicorn head placed squarely on their shoulder, you’re certainly able to do so!
Your first steps into Aion as an Elyos will land you on the island of Poeta after having woken from an odd slumber that has left you searching for answers and a desire to recover lost memories of a former life as a Daeva. This will be the main storyline that will sweep you through roughly the first nine levels and ultimately drives you to recall having been the leader of a great legion in the Abyss who fell in battle, which is a clever way of guiding players towards their subclass selection, but I’ll get into that a bit more later on.

The first thing that struck me which I feel deserves special mention here, is that Aion is not only an incredibly beautiful game, but that I suffered only the most minimal of performance hits when I first logged in to see the starting area flooded with literally hundreds of other players. With all graphical settings turned up to their max I never fell below 30 fps, most often seeing closer to 100+ which is no mean feat considering how visually stunning both environments and combat animations are. It’s also worth noting that I was playing on a somewhat middle of the road PC, with a 2.60 GHz dual-core processor, 4gigs of RAM and a 9800gtx GPU; so not a powerhouse machine by any means. The graphics also scale incredibly well, so that even with everything turned down to the lowest settings Aion still carries that otherworldly glow of a believable and visually appealing game world. Throughout the weekend I had an entirely stable, lag-free experience which just goes to show that once the localization efforts for Aion have been completed, the game is certainly ready for prime time and will hopefully offer an equally solid experience for a broad spectrum of PC users.

Another thing I took an immediate liking to is the slick, one-piece UI. While there is the option to toggle the placement of your character’s status window and the mini-map at the top of the screen which has become somewhat of an industry norm, I’m one of those players who will typically opt for a less cluttered screen in exchange for a better view of my surroundings. Many of the other bells and whistles you’d come to expect from a newer western MMO are also present such as the option to add more hotbars at the click of a mouse or even being able to preview armors before attuning them to your character. During my exploration I also discovered such perks as being able to retain the visual appearance of a particular piece of armor while gaining the benefits from a newer equipped piece by paying a simple fee (which is currently only available at level 30).

While I’m on the subject of fees, many gameplay elements eventually will end up costing you Kinah, the main currency in Aion. Examples here would include travel or teleportation between areas, removing the XP debt obtained upon death or even some of the advanced work orders you’ll likely end up doing as a means of advancing your crafting skills. Thankfully Kinah is also generously handed out as quest rewards and even the most basic dropped items sell to vendors for a decent price, so I never really encountered an instance of feeling a pinch in my coin purse even when teleporting back and forth from the crafting workshop and the bank numerous times or paying the fee to bind my recall point to a new area.

Your first steps into Aion as an Elyos will land you on the island of Poeta after having woken from an odd slumber that has left you searching for answers and a desire to recover lost memories of a former life as a Daeva. This will be the main storyline that will sweep you through roughly the first nine levels and ultimately drives you to recall having been the leader of a great legion in the Abyss who fell in battle, which is a clever way of guiding players towards their subclass selection, but I’ll get into that a bit more later on.

The first thing that struck me which I feel deserves special mention here, is that Aion is not only an incredibly beautiful game, but that I suffered only the most minimal of performance hits when I first logged in to see the starting area flooded with literally hundreds of other players. With all graphical settings turned up to their max I never fell below 30 fps, most often seeing closer to 100+ which is no mean feat considering how visually stunning both environments and combat animations are. It’s also worth noting that I was playing on a somewhat middle of the road PC, with a 2.60 GHz dual-core processor, 4gigs of RAM and a 9800gtx GPU; so not a powerhouse machine by any means. The graphics also scale incredibly well, so that even with everything turned down to the lowest settings Aion still carries that otherworldly glow of a believable and visually appealing game world. Throughout the weekend I had an entirely stable, lag-free experience which just goes to show that once the localization efforts for Aion have been completed, the game is certainly ready for prime time and will hopefully offer an equally solid experience for a broad spectrum of PC users.

Another thing I took an immediate liking to is the slick, one-piece UI. While there is the option to toggle the placement of your character’s status window and the mini-map at the top of the screen which has become somewhat of an industry norm, I’m one of those players who will typically opt for a less cluttered screen in exchange for a better view of my surroundings. Many of the other bells and whistles you’d come to expect from a newer western MMO are also present such as the option to add more hotbars at the click of a mouse or even being able to preview armors before attuning them to your character. During my exploration I also discovered such perks as being able to retain the visual appearance of a particular piece of armor while gaining the benefits from a newer equipped piece by paying a simple fee (which is currently only available at level 30).

While I’m on the subject of fees, many gameplay elements eventually will end up costing you Kinah, the main currency in Aion. Examples here would include travel or teleportation between areas, removing the XP debt obtained upon death or even some of the advanced work orders you’ll likely end up doing as a means of advancing your crafting skills. Thankfully Kinah is also generously handed out as quest rewards and even the most basic dropped items sell to vendors for a decent price, so I never really encountered an instance of feeling a pinch in my coin purse even when teleporting back and forth from the crafting workshop and the bank numerous times or paying the fee to bind my recall point to a new area.

The early levels are spent questing and getting a general feel for both your archetype and how combat differs ever so slightly from what you might have experienced in previous MMOs. One example here would be the combo system that, on the surface, appears somewhat complex but has been seamlessly integrated into the combat experience much better than previous iterations on the concept such as the Heroic Opportunities in EverQuest 2 or whack-a-mole combos in Age of Conan. Hitting the combo starter will temporarily swap out the same keybinding with the next skill in the chain which makes pulling off some of the longer chains you’ll experience later on a breeze.

Combat does tend to feel a bit slow at first, but ultimately hits a point in the early teens where it not only becomes more involved, but has a distinct visual flair as well. Though I did spend some time with each of the core archetypes during the event, I quickly took a liking to the Gladiator subclass. The interface is comfortable and familiar when playing the class, while combat itself felt extremely fluid and graceful. Gladiators attack in a series of grandiose, sweeping movements that instantly brought fighting games such as Soul Calibur IV to mind much more so than anything I’ve experienced in an MMO previously. I’m definitely looking forward to seeing how the class fares in aerial combat in the Abyss should the option become available in future weekend events, but for now I was quite content to scamper around and beat the living snot out of everything that stood in my path; all the while looking the part of a badass warrior with some seriously mean moves.

Flight itself becomes available upon completion of a quest you automatically gain at level nine that allows you to select which of the eight unique subclasses to advance your character into. One minor sticking point here is that, for such a hefty decision, the subclasses themselves are only briefly described in a few simple lines of text with many offering a completely different playstyle than what you might have experienced in the first nine levels. For example, Scouts can become either an Assassin or Ranger; with the first nine levels dedicated to melee attacks and more assassin-oriented combat it would be hard to really understand how vastly different the Ranger subclass would pan out since you haven’t seen any of its skills in action at that point. This reminded me of certain aspects of EQ2’s long-gone archetype system where you’d spend 20 levels essentially playing a Conjuror only to have an entirely different experience with your Necromancer later on.

Abrupt, non-descript “here’s your future” decision-making aside, at level 10 characters finally become Daeva and earn their wings. Most combat areas were designated as no-fly zones, but there were enough areas where flight was an option to get a decent feel for how much it will impact gameplay later on. Even in the no-fly zones your wings can still come in handy, as a quick double tap of the spacebar allows you to glide for short, 10 second bursts which can dramatically speed up travel in areas with terrain of varied elevations or even in Sanctum, the main city hub you’ll also gain access to upon becoming a Daeva as an Elyos. In certain areas crafting components can only be harvested while in flight as well, which certainly adds new a new layer of depth to such an otherwise commonplace activity.
Crafting itself takes place within Sanctum, and is somewhat easy to learn thanks to the above mentioned work orders you can obtain from various NPCs related to the specific trade you’d like to advance. This weekend I opted to explore Armorsmithing to see if I could craft myself a new set of armor for my Gladiator, which I was able to achieve though it did involve a fair amount of travel to obtain all the necessary components. Most recipes involved a mix of crafted, dropped and harvested subcomponents, adding a layer of complexity to an otherwise straight forward process. Basic recipes could either be purchased from a vendor or granted as work order rewards, with some rare recipes dropped randomly as loot.

As a means of circumventing all the component gathering involved in crafting it was also exceedingly easy to hop on over to the local trade broker, or Aion also allows players to whip out a stool and set up a personal shop anyplace they’d like. These personal shops also allow players to advertise their wares with a small floating text box, or in some cases I saw them being used as recruitment tools for legions, Aion’s version of guilds. While I like the concept and can see the potential for centralized, player-driven swap meets ala the early days of EQ in the East Commonlands tunnel, I can also see the potential means for gold farmers to get some cheap (OK, free) in-game advertising if the system isn’t kept in check. Hopefully towns and outposts won’t become flooded with this kind of thing come launch, but the system itself is a nice way of allowing players to buy and sell items without having to constantly run back to the city to do so.

Overall, based on my experiences this weekend I’d say Aion is coming along exceptionally well, and could quite possibly be the first Korean MMO to make a major impact on the North American market. The extra time spent with localization is paying off, even if some elements haven’t quite fallen into place as of yet. Still, many of the rumors that Aion is simply a grindfest or lacks the flair necessary to appeal to a western audience can finally be put to rest, as the game is already incredibly polished and packed with potential. This is one game to keep your eye on in the coming months, and in the meantime I’m looking forward to getting some hands-on time both with the Asmodians and some of the higher level PvP in the Abyss.

Editor’s words: Recently, I know a Chinese player who used to play Aion. He told me his Aion experiences. It’s sad to hear the story. Like to share with you and hope those games we like can keep going forever. Here is the story:

Usually many things may have a good beginning, but not necessarily a good ending (sigh~). Similarly, at the first sight of Aion, I was really amazed at its great charm, but I’ve never thought I’ll feel so frustrated now.

I’m a lazy bone and don’t like typing, so I chose Ranger since I only want to fight against weak monsters and enjoy the surrounding scenes. However, after one month’s play, Aion has been so different. I’ve advanced to lv 35, but only lv 35, and I’m extremely tired.

Everyone in the game looks so hurried, hurriedly being killed, hurriedly resurrecting and hurriedly leveling up (f**k P2P). And gradually I began to realize that many players are using bots. My teammates, however, still love this game. They still do quests with great passion and pleasure. Once, it was kind of fun to watch them chatting. But now, I can only see bots around and cheaters peddling in the chat channel. I managed to ignore them, but in vain. Can you imagine the feeling when your monster kill was stolen by botting players? Yes, I’m a lazy man and have no interest in making more friends. I just want to play the game relaxedly. But I just don’t know what I can do and where I can go…

I still remember that when I finally found the NPC on the central island at the lower layer of the Abyss when doing the “Prophecy” mission, I laughed heartily. But not long later, a group of Elyos players with red names appeared and I ran away immediately coz’ I feared of being killed. Later, I got to know that they were grinding up Abyss Points there…

The last time when I logged out, I curiously took a look at the AP ranking. I noticed that the top 1 player, with a Japanese name, was one of the players I spotted on the island when I did the “Prophecy” mission…

I feel just so frustrated. When I finally finished crafting my lv 35 weapon and equipped it, I had no idea where to go. I can’t find any happiness or excitement in Aion. What I’m feeling is but only tiresome and hopeless!  

Dear GM, you do reply my every report, and I want to thank you for what you did. However, your reply was always like: the technical department is handling the issue. You know, it really frustrated me and I can’t see any hope, any future.

Although I’m not a hardcore player like boys, I used to think I could go a long way in Aion coz’ I just want to do what I like and have fun in game. Hehe, you may say I’m a fool and it is a waste of time. But this is just what I want in Aion. Anyways, I still have another choice, quit, right?

Now it’s the beginning of a new anticipated game Aion. NCSoft recently invited the Ensidia, top-of-the line WOW guild to enter Aion(EU)’s Beta which will be launched the upcoming weekend.
http://www.ensidia.com/community/post/1196/

Description of the contest

All you have to do to win one of the 50 keys is post a comment with the words “I want to play the Aion EU beta” until Thursday, June 4th 2009, 14:00 CET.

So we have seen the same reply on follow-up comment - “I want to play the Aion EU beta“.

A topic named 1st WOW Guild Went over to Aion from Chinese online gaming interactive site named 178.com, report the event. But unexpectedly we found a very opposed phenomenon there. Most of players there left same words as “I don’t want to play the Aion EU beta“.

Why?

Months ago most of Chinese players were wishing that they had the chance to play Aion. One of the reason is that people was tormented with an everlasting itch for World of the Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King remote, on the other they were very excited to see a new MMORPG which got nice screens and details. People treat it a big project as “WOW Killer“, like everything that we are doing now.

But after the beta test of the Aion(CN), more and more Aion fans quit the game and delete the client. “There are full of bots and disgusting quest, it’s another grind MMORPG with DELUXE APPEARANCE, just a new WOW Clone.” Can Aion Dethrone The King of MMOs? It seems that the answer is clear.

Aion vs WoW

When we checked out the voting result and player comments relating to Recommended MMOs in November，it’s crystal clear that Aion and WoW are becoming the focus of MMO players’ discussions, due to the upcoming of Aion’s OBT and the recent release of Wotlk. Some players said they hope Aion or some other MMO will pose a challenge to WoW’s throne, “If a game comes out that poses a serious future threat, maybe the developers will get their heads out of their nether regions and start innovating some.”

Scenery in Aion is seductive and depicted to a nicety, and it’s eastern style. We can easily find the decided difference of water effect between Aion and WoW. Putting aside your system, Aion is more beautiful than WoW, but WoW is still a cost-effective MMO. The graphics of Aion actually look nice, but it should first make promises with its quest system, class and gameplay balance.

It is said that “WoW + wings = Aion”. Everyone is trying to imitate WoW in seeking success, but Aion also owns lots of unique things you may not notice. Here are some differences between Aion and WoW. You can explore the Aion world personally when its OBT starts. Plus, don’t forget to tell us your discovery.

1.Characters in Aion can fly, cause’ they get wings. Are you interested to see how aerial combat breaks out in an MMO, especially for melee/special classes. Is the assassin going to have to chase someone in 3D just to hit them? Are the spiritualist’s pets all going to fly with him’her? A system like this would seem to favor ranged combatants unless there’s some kind of lockon feature or speed advantage for melee classes.

2.There’s no Mount System in Aion but a Transformation System.

3. PvP system in Aion is larger than WoW, Aereschuranta.

The Abyss(Aion’s PVPVE area) is divided into three layers: Top, centre, and bottom. There are five fortresses and eight artifacts in the top layer, one fortress and seven artifacts in the centre, three fortresses and seven artifacts in the bottom layer with two strategic points.

4. Characters can’t swim in water. They will get a cumulative injury in water.

5. When the characters die, they will be sent back to the place where you bind. You won’t see the Spirit mode in Aion.

6. DYE system, just DIY your suits. There are more detail setting in character creating interface in Aion.
7. Players will get kinds of titles by sloving quests or collecting items, these titles affect characters’ attribute. This achievement system is added into Wotlk now.

8. Guild need to level up for enlarging its scale.

The combat system is indeed innovative as it is based off combos more like a fighting game but with the traditional MMORPG abilities. Think of every class as having an activated combat playstyle similar to the “Rogues”.

9. Skill CD prompt in Aion is innate but in WoW you need a related Plug-ins.

Is Aion a Killer to WoW?

Let’s just read players’ opinions we have gathered. A game requiring more than what people’s graphics card can deliver might decrease its supporters who just have an ordinary graphics card. People are hoping NCsoft will retain the same great character models and world graphics while not alienating those who have older systems.

Aion, despite some simalarities, is a completely different game. this world is nonlinear, whereas, I saw
some places that looked familiar, such as Dark Shire and GoldShire. In the world of building, no house is
gonna look the same as the last, there’s always gonna be something like a higher chimney, maybe an
extra chimney, but most of all, the SHAPE will be different. (Excluding the redundant townhouses.)

Now, when I see an inn, it looks the same on the outside. And the inside, which makes it even WORSE,
because this means that no effort was put into towns, this is severely disappointing and takes you out of
the experience and reminds you that you are playing a video game.

Aion will not only have better graphics, but the combat will actually be FUN.
Guild Wars, Lord of the Rings Online, Hellgate: London, Age of Conan and Warhammer Online. All of
these MMO’s were touted as ‘WoW killers’, but none have delivered. The Warhammer Online beta was so
bad they had to pull it back into active development.

Aion looks interesting, but is it a WoW killer? No. It doesn’t add anything substantially new to
the genre, but that’s not the reason why people won’t flock to it.

WoW runs quite well on many, many machines, including those 2-3 years out of date. I can already
tell, just by looking at the screenshots, that Aion will require more than my processor/graphics
card can deliver. That holds true for many of the WoW playerbase. I tried LotRO, but it wouldn’t
play on my laptop at anything more than the most basic settings, and that just made it look like
crap.

That is, IMO, one area that Blizzard has yet to be outmatched on: graphics. Wow’s graphics are
stunning considering that they’ve got low polygon counts and primitive textures.

Why can’t other MMO’s take a page from Blizzard’s book, and offer stylistic, simple and well-done
graphics that are easy on video cards? At a stroke, you’d have access to a much wider audience.

Edit: Don’t get me wrong, I hope Aion rises as a serious threat to WoW, as they sorely need the
competition. But I’m not holding my breath.
So whatever you consider with Aion and WoW, their developers are still doing their best for their own features. Don’t be too punctilious in your attention to the question if any game is a killer to another one.

from http://news.mmosite.com/content/2009-06-04/20090604051826498,1.shtml

When NCsoft showed me a demo of their soon-to-launch, massively multiplayer fantasy game, Aion, at the E3 show, I saw a lot of reworked themes common to this fairly mature genre: A pair of at-odds races, each vying to wipe the other from their common home planet; user interface elements familiar to anyone who’s played any of NCsoft’s titles; and a persistent world that’s as dangerous as it is beautiful.

But what I didn’t expect was a discussion about the game’s launch in Asia, which happened some months ago, and how rapidly the game has caught on and expanded in China.

The game’s International Development Manager (international, that is, for South Korea-based NCsoft), Yong Taek Bae, explained that the game’s initial launch broke all kinds of records. On Aion’s Korean launch day, beginning at 6am local time, when the company switched on servers and began allowing paying customers to join the game, 11,000 players signed on each hour. By noon, the company had to turn on four additional servers — in addition to the 21 running at launch–to accommodate the crowd. Each server is capable of supporting 7000 simultaneous players.

But that was nothing compared to China, where the local company operating the service had to double the volume of servers after launch; They’re currently running around 70 servers continuously to handle the constant, heavy demand.

So the big question in my mind is, could Aion pose a significant challenge to the 800 lb. gorilla that is Blizzard’s World of Warcraft? If the draw in Asia is any indication, it’s certainly possible. One big question remains: Can the company  appropriately and accurately “re-culturize” the game — not just translate the text from Korean to English, but modify the storyline to accommodate English euphemisms, and American cultural references and themes. NCsoft says it’s hired a team of seasoned fantasy and sci-fi writers to do just that. It remains to be seen whether six months of tweaking and balancing gameplay based on player feedback, and good writing, will be able to help the game overcome the out-of-the-gate second class status afforded to any new, non-Blizzard MMO.

Shanda’s net revenues increased 42.0% year-over-year and 9.1% quarter-over-quarter to a record high of RMB 1,107.1 million (US$162.0 million), compared to the company’s previous guidance of quarter-over-quarter growth between 3% and 5%.

Net income increased 25.0% year-over-year and 10.6% quarter-over-quarter to RMB 361.0 million (US$52.8 million).

On April 16, 2009, Shanda Games commercially launched AION: The Tower of Eternity and thte title is proving to be a hit. MMORPGs related revenues in the first quarter of 2009 increased 47.4% year-over-year and 8.0% quarter-over-quarter to RMB 944.5 million (US$138.2 million), accounting for 85.3% of net revenues.

The number of active paying accounts for MMORPGs increased 22.1% sequentially to 7.19 million in the first quarter of 2009, primarily due to the company’s efforts to convert free players to paying users.

ARPU for MMORPGs was RMB 43.8in the first quarter of 2009, compared with RMB 49.5 in the fourth quarter of 2008.