Aion Developer Blogs

San Fransisco Press Release


Dev Blog: The San Francisco Press Preview

August 27, 2008

It's been a while since my first Dev blog, but not because of a lack of things to talk about. Things behind the scenes have simply been that busy getting Aion ready for this week's Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle, last week's Games Convention in Leipzig. There will be loads of information and recaps coming from these two events; there is a different event that I want to share some news about.

Earlier in the summer European game press got a sneak peek at Aion as a result of Brighton's Develop conference. Last week it was the North American game press' turn for a preview event held in San Francisco. Hosted at Entertaining Spaces (click on "The Space" for further information on the venue), NCsoft showcased Aion to some heavy hitters in the gaming media and the reviews thus far have exceeded our expectations. Said GameCyte,

It's definitely a new way of entering the oversaturated MMORPG market. Frequently, newcomers to the field will try and handle the unstoppable presence of WoW by asserting that their game is different enough that there's room for both titles. Aion, on the other hand, seems to be taking the opposite route: the game is similar to WoW because WoW is a good game, and its millions of players will be able to quickly and comfortably slip right in to Aion — and once they're there, they'll find a number of vast improvements. Kotaku was also excited about what they saw in the preview,

This MMORPG might look like a World of Warcraft copycat, but there's more going on here than meets the glazed-over eye of a cynic. It's got PvPvE which kicks your old school PvP/PvE in the butt, incredibly flexible character customization, and - instead of some lousy mount at level 20 - you get freaking wings at level 10. The Escapist was also pleased with their Aion experience,

It (Aion)looks like highly stylized fantasy anime, but the gameplay will be instantly familiar to gamers on this side of the Pacific. By the time Aion reaches the West, the already competitive MMORPG market will be even nastier than it is now, but regardless of how it performs, NCsoft can rest easy. They've brought their baby into the 21st century. Gametrailers.com interviewed Associate Producer, Brian Knox and G4TV also took the time to do a lengthy piece on Aion. GameZone posted an interview with Brian as well as their thoughts after they spent time in the game. Reviews from Wired, Big Download and 1UP are available and more are expected in the near future. What did the venue look like? Here are some images:


I would like to thank those who accepted our invitation to attend the press preview for their time and reviews.