Aion goes free-to-play in February 2012

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 14 December, 2011

"We want to reinvigorate the world."

Fantasy MMO Aion goes free-to-play in February 2012, NCsoft has announced.

From February you'll be able to download the full version of the game for free and play without any subscription costs.

NCsoft has partnered with Gameforge, which will be responsible for running the game across all of Europe.

The switch to free-to-play was made, NCsoft said, to boost player numbers in Europe.

"In the last few months the lands in Atreia have become more and more deserted," Gameforge wrote on the new Aionfreetoplay website.

"We want to reinvigorate the world of Aion and attract new adventurers to the towns to take to the skies as Daevas."

Gameforge has launched a new FAQ that details how the switch will work and how it affects existing players.

In May this year the huge Empyrean Calling update for Aion was released. The patch 2.5 added a high quality graphics option and new character faces.

We're now on update 2.7, which added a new PvP arena and a new raid.

"We have worked hard with NCsoft to develop a fair free-to-play model for new players as well as the current community," Gameforge's executive director Alexander Rösner said.

"In the future we will of course continue to develop new content and extend it, working in close cooperation with the players."

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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