Tag: Aion

NCsoft Q2 Release: Profits Up, Aion/Lineage 2 Down


The first thing you’ll notice about NCsoft’s quarterly report for the second quarter of 2011 is a massive spike in sales from Lineage. NCsoft attributes this to strong item sales promotions. As of now, Lineage is the company’s best source of income, despite the game’s removal from its Western presence just a couple of months ago. Lineage’s item sales have propelled a 67% year over year increase in income, despite a 1% decline in overall sales over the same period. City of Heroes and Guild Wars continued a slow decline, although City of Heroes will undoubtedly hit an increase in sales once the game goes free to play later this year.

Lineage’s success, however, comes on the heels of both Lineage II and Aion dropping a hefty amount, attributed to “slow seasonality” in the report. I talked last year about NCsoft’s regional breakdown in sales, as a response to why some western gamers described feeling like NCsoft doesn’t pay the hemisphere as much attention. As of Q2 2010, the regional breakdown is as such:

  1. Korea: 64%
  2. Japan: 10%
  3. Royalties: 7%
  4. N. America: 9%
  5. Europe: 5%
  6. Taiwan: 3%

Those figures in Q2 2011:

  1. Korea: 71%
  2. Japan: 10%
  3. Royalties: 9%
  4. N. America: 4%
  5. Europe: 3%
  6. Taiwan: 3%

Aion: 10 Day Free Trial And Welcome Back Week


Aion’s 2.5 patch brings a whole lot of sexy to NCsoft’s already big-hitting title. The patch brings with it a new graphics mode, new content, customizations, pets, mentoring, armors, abyss changes, dynamic maps, and more changes than you could legally shake your finger at. In fact, NCsoft is so excited, that they want to welcome back their old players (again) to show them just how well the game has improved…just not for a few weeks. Possibly to give the current subscribers a leg up on the update and work out any kinks before reopening the doors, the welcome back week runs from June 3rd to June 13th.

If you haven’t logged into your NCsoft account since the security update, you may want to get a head start. NCsoft enacted a new security policy, requiring computers to be authenticated before an account can log in from them. In order to authenticate a computer, you will need to enter your password hint answers, and if you don’t know those, go through support to get them changed. Do so soon, because there’s no saying how much NCsoft’s Customer support will be backed up.

Furthermore, those of you who never played Aion will have the opportunity to take part in a ten day trial, experiencing up to level 20. The trial goes live May 26th. Oh NCsoft, why did you have to pick June 3rd and make me choose between Aion, the Hellgate Global beta opening, and the Duke Nukem Forever beta (among other things that week)?

NCsoft Q1 2011 Finances In: Profits Up!


It’s that time of the year already, the first quarter financial reports are starting to stream in. Last year wasn’t so great for NCsoft, considering they lost a $28 million lawsuit against Richard Garriot. Sales of Aion, Lineage, and City of Heroes went down, while Lineage 2, Guild Wars, and NCsoft’s other titles saw a brief increase.

Another point worth noting is the American presence in NCsoft’s portfolio: It’s dropping. Whereas North America made up 12% of NCsoft’s sales in Q4 2009 (23,733), this figure has plummeted to 5% in Q1 2011 (or a paltry 7,129). Similarly, NCsoft’s presence in Japan and Taiwan has been suffering, albeit not nearly as much, and Europe has also plummeted from 12% down to 4% since Q4 2009. Royalties have skyrocketed, around 50% higher than the same time in Q1 2010. This is attributed mostly to Aion’s performance in China.

Although these figures look great for NCsoft as a whole, they don’t really spell well for the Western markets for the coming years. As sales continue to fall in North America and Europe, NCsoft continues to shut down games, with the most recent being Lineage (just in the west) this June. Perhaps the trend can turn around with NCsoft’s upcoming titles: Blade and Soul, Lineage III, and Guild Wars 2 are looking to draw in big crowds, with Guild Wars 2 likely being the first to launch.

I’ll be keeping watch on NCsoft as I always do.

Looking Back, Moving Forward: November 2010


It's funny because it bashes WoW...

Small change in the LBMF structure. Now that November is done, companies are going to have to ramp up work if they’re going to get their game out and hit that 2010 release date. According to the MMORPG.com game list, there are more MMOs apparently slated for release this month than I can care to count.

My biggest disappointment with November was probably that there won’t be a 2011 MMO calendar. The 2010 MMO calendar on my wall, many of the months having various autographs, came out last year to benefit St. Jude Childre’s Research Center, and apparently is not coming back for 2011. I may just buy a Guild Wars 2 calendar, or perhaps just use my Nintendo 2011 calendar I received as part of the Nintendo Club.

The Good:

  • Star Trek Online Free To Play: Sure, Cryptic may be bribing us by saying “play Champions Online free to play and perhaps spend some cash, and maybe we’ll consider throwing you a bone in Star Trek Online,” but who cares? Star Trek Online may be going free to play! Although it will be limited, a free to play transition for Star Trek Online should be just what the game needs to get some big traffic, especially with the changes in response to player gripes, and the introduction of user generated content.
  • K2 Networks Picks Up APB: K2Networks, also known as GamersFirst, picked up the rights to All Points Bulletin and plans on reviving the game early next year, after an extensive patching to make the game suitable for its new free to play environment.
  • PvP In Alganon: Well, technically to have player vs player combat you need more than one player, but we can work on that at a later date. In the November patch, Quest Online added a system for flagging for PvP, as well as dueling. In future patches, Alganon players will see a keep/siege system similar to Warhammer Online, as well as a renown system that players will level up for gear.
  • Pirates of the Burning Sea now Free: Flying Lab Software released the free to play transition to Pirates of the Burning Sea this month.

The Bad:

  • No City? I’m On Break: A company royally breaking their game in a patch is not all too uncommon, in fact I can name at least one game (rhymes with ShroomTape) where such an event occurs every other week. When Mortal Online released a patch that inadvertently removed a city, killing its occupants and creating a gigantic void for players who came anywhere near it, much of the angry response came not because of the glitch itself, but because of the response. The players were told that the missing city could not be replaced for a few days, because the developers were off for the weekend.
  • Final Fantasy XIV: Not Satisfactory: It isn’t often a company comes right out and says “our game isn’t satisfactory,” but Square Enix did with Final Fantasy XIV, and after bad news on the financial grounds, they are committed to keeping their current subscribers (who haven’t paid a dime in subscription fees three months after release) and bringing in new players. To top off this need for players, I found that stores in the US, and possibly other countries, are pulling Final Fantasy XIV from shelves. Target and WalMart are now only selling the title online.
  • Star Gate: No More Resistance: Square Enix isn’t the only group getting a double whammy this month, as Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment announced that they had won the lawsuit against Fresh Start Studios, gaining their assets back for Stargate Worlds. Unfortunately, MGM terminated the agreement with Cheyenne over the Stargate license, meaning for right now the MMO is dead. Later on in November, Fresh Start announced that Stargate Resistance would be shutting down early next year.
  • Aion Million Man March: Later on in November, mmosite reported on a protest in Aion China against the rampant botting in the game. An estimated thirty thousand players appeared to congest cities in a number of servers in protest, shutting down four servers in the process.

The “What’s Happening in December?”:

  • Earth…Something or Other: Earth Eternal shut down back in August after the developers stopped paying the bills, and I think it’s safe to assume that Sparkplay Media’s CEO is now unemployed. We still don’t know who purchased the game, although all signs point to Time Warner, and there is no indication when the game will be brought back online. Guess we’re in for another month of waiting.
  • Anarchy In The Cash Shop: Anarchy Online last month launched the game’s brand new cash shop, offering everything from level packs, stims, and more for a nominal fee. I’ll be watching to see if there are any financial reports gloating on the success of the cash shop, or if its existence is merely pushed to the back as something of an embarrassment.
  • Cataclysm Shakes WoW: Oh look, a mention of World of Warcraft on MMO Fallout! Although the damage to the World of Warcraft has already been done, for the most part, in the Shattering event, Cataclysm launches in just a few days bringing new races, new areas, and generally a whole lot of new to the World of Warcraft.
  • And More!
http://www.colorado.edu/conflict/peace/problem/stereoty.h

Thirty Thousand Man March: Chinese Aion Protest


Oddly enough, those are all on one faction.

Over in China, Aion follows the suit of many other MMOs: A major bot problem. This isn’t necessarily due to NCsoft “not caring” about the gold farmers, but rather the enormous market compared to services in the West that brings in a substantial profit margin and results in a flood of input into a system that is already large enough to explode. It’s important to remember a major facet of gold farming: If there wasn’t any demand, there wouldn’t be any market for supply. But there will always be a demand, proportional to the size of the population, and legitimate players cannot be blamed for the actions of those who do buy from these services.

Players in China, however, decided that enough was enough, and staged a protest. MMOSITE estimates that there were thirty thousand people in attendance, in a protest that spanned numerous cities and lagged those areas to a slow crawl. Players created new toons adorned with names like “no bots” and “ban the bots.” Eventually, at least four servers buckled under the strain and had to be taken down for maintenance.

Of course, this inevitably received the attention of NCSoft, who attempted to disperse the crowd by spawning several Grand Chieftain Saendukals (boss), which the swarms of players quickly overtook.

You can read the entire story here: http://news.mmosite.com/content/2010-04-12/30000_aion_players_protest_bots_led_to_servers_down.shtml#ue_pic

Hopefully this sent a clear message to NCsoft to ramp up the anti-bot operations over in China. Here in North America/Europe, the bot problem isn’t nearly as large and NCsoft has brought in the G-Unit to bust gold farming. I’m not certain if there is a similar system in China.

More in Aion as it appears.

Aion: Server Transfers, Security, and More…


overused.

Given that we are nearing the end of November, and Aion is still running to the best of our knowledge, the jingling of pipe bombs at my doorstep is a good indicator that the Aion producer Chris Hager has put out a new address to the community.

Earlier this year, Aion introduced the free slightly restricted server transfer service with the hopes of one day making such a service paid for all. Hager boasts that the team has transferred over 170,000 characters since July, and that the team has learned enough from the test service to put a full paid version in effect coming next year. After January 5th, 2011, when everyone has no doubt finished clustering into the transfer service while it is still free, server transfers will become paid. Of course there will be restrictions on certain factions transferring to certain servers where they may be unbalanced.

But what would an Aion article be without talking security? In the next week or so, Hager plans to address a new security system going live on December 1st, that will entail a secondary pin system. Security has been a major issue in Aion’s history, from NCsoft account problems to fansites getting hijacked, and everything in between. If this pin system is anything like several other games, it will likely involve the player inputting a pin via a mouse click screen. I can’t really see NCsoft using a dongle system like Final Fantasy XIV and World of Warcraft.

More on Aion as it appears.

Aion: Double Experience and Siege Changes


 

Assuming the GM's don't murder you first.

 

In its 13+ months of existence, the team over at Aion has done a lot to remove issues that plagued the game at launch, from overpopulation (to subsequent underpopulation), lag in large battles, and bugs and glitches. However, one of the biggest issues I still see people having with the game is the immense amount of grind still present, occasionally lessened with a double experience weekend.

Such is the case once again with Aion, where players will enjoy a double experience weekend in December, twice! Between December 3rd and 6th, and again from the 10th to the 13th, players will enjoy double experience on any of their toons. In addition, these weekends will bring 99% discounts to soul healing. If that doesn’t make any sense to you, soul healing is the cost you pay to instantly remove the sickness effect when your character dies.

In other community pleasing news, the announcement came that the siege times will be changed for people who would like to do other things aside from sieging every night. Sieges now happen in a two hour window rather than three, along with an hour block in between to allow players to participate in other activities. Up until now, if you were attacking or defending, that was your job for the night. Forts are now on a single layer, as well, to remove the tactical strategy of bum rushing all three at once.

The double experience times are on the calendar page.

You can read more about the double experience here: http://na.aiononline.com/board/notices/view?articleID=434&page=

You can read more about the siege changes here: http://na.aiononline.com/board/notices/view?articleID=435&page=

Aion: Reactivation Weekend With Double Exp


Back in Time...

Dear everyone who quit Aion (and those who left after the server merge debacle),

If the latest information from MMODATA.net is to be believed, Aion’s subscription numbers may be down but the worldwide subscription count is still estimated at slightly below three and a half million (making it indeed second to World of Warcraft). Regardless, the folks at Aion would love to see your smiling faces again, grinding your way to the end game, where you might do some PvP and punch a few gold farmers in the face for good measure. So this Friday, July 30th, NCsoft is activating all of the old accounts for the weekend, so that they may partake in the delight of double experience. Just pay no attention to your mangled username.

As startled as some of you may be, I will remind you that whatever issues I take with a company, I always continue to promote new ways to get into MMOs for as little as possible (if anything).

More on Aion as it appears.

Good News Everyone! Aion Transfers Back On Schedule


Back in Time...

I reported yesterday that the character transfer system, which was to follow the server mergers in Aion, was delayed due to an unseen issue that did not arise until literally the day of. In the post, NCsoft promised that they would provide 24 hour notice before the transfers went into motion again, and that players should be prepared for notice at any given time. There was no indication on how long the fix would take, and luckily it was barely a day, as the following post on Aion’s website states:

We have managed to correct the problem that was causing the transfers to fail and are ready to bring the servers down again to transfer all those that had queued prior to yesterday’s maintenance. If you queued prior to the 14th July your transfer will go through, there is no need to queue again, please make sure that your character meets the transfer requirements before the maintenance.

The servers will be taken down at 4am CEST for approximately three hours, after which the queue for character transfers will be reopened. Normal restrictions on transfers are still in effect, and players are required to read the restrictions if they would like to minimize item loss in the transition.

Aion Transfer Delayed…Again.

In the process of merging a large number of their servers, Aion has run into a number of snags, the latest of which brings a temporary delay to the character transfer program. In a post on the Aion website, NC announced that the transfer service was put on hold due to unforeseen issues.


Because my other Aion image isn't working...

In the process of merging a large number of their servers, Aion has run into a number of snags, the latest of which brings a temporary delay to the character transfer program. In a post on the Aion website, NC announced that the transfer service was put on hold due to unforeseen issues.

Character Transfer Services have been disabled while we troubleshoot technical issues that arose this morning.  You will not be able to initiate a character transfer during this time.  If you have already initiated a transfer for a character prior to the maintenance window, you will not have to repeat the process.  Your character transfer will already be queued when we re-enable transfer services.

NCSoft has promised to give players 24 hour notice, but cannot give any more detailed information as to how long the transfer services will be down. More on the Aion transfer service as it appears, hopefully I’ll be able to get you some news soon on this event which has turned into nothing but a pain in the backside for all parties involved.