Quick News On the China Beta
April 12, 2009 - 8:13pm
Well as each day passes more and more people are subscribing to get into the Chinese Aion Beta, and as more people join, more news is released about the game and anthing else to do with it. Without further delay i bring you news straight from china on Aion.
From yesterday:
Source: JLM Pacific Epoch - Shanda: "AION" Open Beta Fills 80 Server Groups
Source: Jinmao Tower Turned Into 'Tower of Eternity'
From today:
Source: JLM Pacific Epoch - Shanda Announces "AION" Price, Release Date and PCU
Source: StreetInsider.com - Susquehanna Downgrades Shanda Interactive Entertainment Ltd. (SNDA) to Neutral
Source: Shanda to Use Pay-to-Play Model for Aion | Marbridge Consulting - China Internet News
Source: AION: Chinese Beta Impressions | MMORPG Games & MMO News - MMOCrunch
Thats it for now.
From yesterday:
Quote:
| Shanda (Nasdaq:SNDA) had opened a total of five server farms with 80 server groups for its licensed western fantasy MMORPG AION by April 9, after the game began open beta testing on April 8. Shanda said it opened new server groups 13 times on April 8 and apologized to gamers who are still waiting to join the testing. |
Quote:
| The advertisement, displayed on Jinmao Tower, the second highest building in Shanghai, was customized by Shanda Interactive Entertainment Limited (Nasdaq: SNDA) ("Shanda"), a leading Chinese interactive entertainment company, in connection with a close-beta testing for its latest game entitled "AION: The Tower of Eternity." The advertisement was generated by projecting the Chinese characters for "AION: The Tower of Eternity," with the use of laser lights, onto the west wall of Jinmao Tower and its podium tower. This advertisement, which rises over 100 metres into the sky, is one of the world's biggest interactive entertainment advertisements and provides a sharp contrast to the dark night background, attracting many pedestrians and tourists. |
From today:
Quote:
| Shanda's (Nasdaq:SNDA) licensed western fantasy MMORPG AION will begin charging RMB 0.48 per hour when it releases its commercial operation version 1.0, "Yao Sai Pan Long," on April 16. The new version will raise game levels from 30 to 45; allow each account to create five characters instead of three; and add new tasks, maps, skills, virtual tools and dungeons to the game. Under the pay-for-time model, users can purchase 100 Shanda vouchers for RMB 1, and each voucher allows AION gamers to play for 75 seconds. The9's (Nasdaq:NCTY) licensed MMORPG World of Warcraft charges RMB 0.45 per hour. AION developer NCSoft announced that the game had recorded 200,000 peak concurrent users on April 10, the third day of open beta testing in China, reports ChinaByte.com quoting Yonhap News Agency. AION began open beta testing on April 8 and had opened a total of five server farms with 80 server groups by April 9. |
Quote:
| Susquehanna analyst says, "We believe new game Aion is off to a robust start after beginning its open beta testing yesterday, but we believe Shanda's shares, whose market cap has risen by more than $1 bln since last November, have well priced in the positive. We have raised earnings estimates on Shanda, but are lowering our rating to Neutral from Positive. We will remain watchful on the game's prospects, owing to the challenging time-based revenue model, high hardware requirement, and low success rate of Korean MMO games in China." |
Quote:
| Gaming company Shanda (Nasdaq: SNDA) announced yesterday evening that the game Aion will make use of a time-based payment model that will take effect April 16 with the release of the all-new commercial version 1.0 of "Yaosai Pan Long" (unofficial translation: The Coiled Stronghold). Shanda said that following the announcement on the evening of April 9 that game-play would be billed by time spent playing, several hundred thousand gamers increased their account balances. RMB 1 equates to 100 Shanda game points, each of which is worth 75 seconds of game-play. RMB 1 therefore purchases 125 minutes of Aion game-play. Editor's Note: According to an industry insider, Aion's peak concurrent user (PCU) total reached 250,000 in the first two hours of open beta testing. Aion began open beta testing at 8 am on April 8. |
Quote:
| Even though it's not a full loot sandbox, this game has an incredible sense of freedom. The game is still in beta, but it feels so finished. Other than issues caused by the eternal dark curse upon the earth, more commonly known as GameGuard(which I doubt will even be added for NA players), I never crashed, I rarely got lag spikes, and I was never once disconnected from the servers. Ever. No 10k latency, no 5k latency like some games had at release. I'm looking at you, Age of Conan. They could release this game tomorrow, in beta, and I'd buy it. |
Thats it for now.
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Shanda plans to give away up to twelve free hours of game play to AION users each time they recharge RMB 30 or RMB 100 from March 9-23. First time rechargers from March 13-15 will be eligible to win more game time or a free lifetime account.
NCSoft introduced a public trial service of the $17 million game in China last week and now plans to launch it commercially there far sooner than market participants had anticipated.
"We decided go ahead with the commercial launch of the game on April 16, since the trial service in China was better received than we had expected," said NCSoft spokeswoman.
"The market estimates that about 500,000 people participated in the trial service in China, which is quite a big number. Trial services rarely attract more than 100,000 people," Samsung Securities said in a report on Monday.
"Aion is expected to be a big hit," it added, upping its target price on the game publisher to 160,000 won.
EDIT: Here's some pictures of Aion's booth from Sakuracon.
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