Aion 2, a sequel to beloved Korean MMO Aion which has been available in South Korea and Taiwan since late last year, is getting a global PC release in 2026. The game will be available on both Steam and Purple, NCSoft’s dedicated launcher.
Announced by NCSoft North America, the MMORPG will get official servers in North America, South America, Europe, and Japan. No exact release date has been announced as of writing, but the Steam blog post for the announcement states: “The AION 2 development team will be introducing more news for Aion 2 in May, and looks forward to answering your questions, and engaging directly with the community.”
The original Aion, released back in 2008, was an incredibly popular MMO with over 7m monthly subscribers. Aion 2 was met with a mixed reception in 2025 across South Korea and Taiwan. While visually impressive, some were turned away by the game’s monetisation model. It also suffered from a botting problem, though NCSoft said this was largely resolved in the months following launch.
Aion 2 will be launching at a very interesting time for the genre. MMORPGs remain dominated by a few long-lasting giants in the West, including World of Warcraft. Older MMOs, like Old School RuneScape, Eve Online, and Guild Wars 2 have recently seen a surge of players as people search for an MMO with proven staying power. Meanwhile, newer releases have largely struggled to retain momentum as part of the wider live service landscape.
Still, there are prior examples of Eastern MMOs doing well following a global release. Lost Ark remains the prime example of a popular global MMO release, it too critisied for its monetisation model. So who knows! Maybe Aion 2 could be a big hit!
