Aion 2 Pre-Download Now Live on Steam Ahead of Early Access

Aion 2 is almost here. And if you want to spend launch morning actually playing rather than staring at a progress bar, now is the time to act.

NC has opened pre-downloads for its new free-to-play MMORPG on Steam, one day before Early Access begins. The client is available to everyone, not just players who have already paid for a pack. That matters more than it might seem, and we'll get to why.

When the Doors Open

Early Access starts tomorrow, September 30. For players in the West, that means an early alarm: the servers go live at 6:00 AM Pacific, which is 9:00 AM Eastern. East Coast players can probably manage it over breakfast. West Coast players will need coffee, and possibly a very understanding boss.

Early Access is the head start for people who bought a pack. Everyone else can join on October 5, and the Steam pre-download is open to that group as well. So if you plan to wait for the free route, you can still get the files out of the way now instead of fighting everyone else for bandwidth next week.

This is a small thing, but it's the right call. Launch days for online games are rarely calm. Servers get hammered, queues pile up, and the last thing anyone wants is a multi-gigabyte download running at the same moment. Pulling that step forward removes at least one headache.

Picking a Server (and a Side)

Anyone planning to play with friends has some homework. NC has published a server list, and the choices depend on which data center you connect to. Each region offers between two and eight servers.

There's a catch, though. The number you can actually pick from is cut in half once you choose your faction. NC's own example: an Asmodian player on NA East gets two options, Israphel and Zikel. That's it.

In practice, this means friend groups need to agree on more than just a region. You'll want to settle on a faction first, then a server, before anyone creates a character. Otherwise someone ends up on the wrong side of the map, or the wrong side of the war, and has to start over. Nobody wants to reroll on day one.

The Road to Launch

This hasn't come out of nowhere. NC has already put Aion 2 through a launch scale test, a stress run meant to see how the servers hold up under real player load. It's also far from the only project on the publisher's plate right now. NC has announced a closed beta for Astrae Oratio, a magical girl RPG it shared more details about around Tokyo Game Show.

But Aion 2 is clearly the headliner. It's a sequel to a name that still carries weight with a lot of longtime MMO players, and it's arriving with a free-to-play price tag attached.

Our Take

The Steam pre-download for non-paying players reads as a sign that NC is aiming for as many people as possible to show up on October 5 rather than trickling in. For a free-to-play MMORPG, the first weeks are everything. A population that forms quickly tends to keep a game feeling alive, and a rough first impression is hard to shake.

The split between a paid Early Access window and a later free launch is also worth keeping an eye on. Monetization in online games is a sore spot right now - just look at RuneScape's planned microtransaction item purge, or Quake Champions moving away from free-to-play. How NC handles its store after launch could shape how Western players see Aion 2 long term.

What to watch next: whether the servers cope on day one, and whether that fairly tight server count per faction holds up once the free wave arrives on October 5. The genre has had a difficult stretch lately, so a smooth start would be good news for more than just NC.