Among massively multiplayer online gamers, there’s nothing
more exciting than the weeks leading up to the release of a new MMO. In
recent years, fans have often been given the opportunity to jump into
these late testing beta experiences by doing nothing more than
pre-ordering a copy of the upcoming title. This combined with head
start programs drove much of the early sales for games like style="font-style: italic;">Age of
Conan and Warhammer
Online, and not it looks like style="font-style: italic;">Aion is seeing
similar results from their pre-order programs.

Over in the United Kingdom, several prominent retailers –
specifically href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Aion-Tower-Eternity-Collectors-PC/dp/B0013J68PS/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1246904497&sr=8-2"
target="_blank">Amazon and href="http://www.game.co.uk/PC/RolePlaying/MassivelyMultiplayer/%7Er334820/Aion-The-Tower-of-Eternity-Collectors-Edition/"
target="_blank">GAME.com – have
apparently sold out
of their allotment of Aion
pre-orders. While sell outs do occur in the
gaming space, it isn’t a common occurrence so we went to
NCsoft to get to the bottom of the shortage.

We touched base with PR Director Ryan James, who had this to say about
the lack of Aion copies in the UK:

We’re very excited by the demand
we’ve seen for
Aion
overall, both in our beta test events and in preorders and
presales of the game. We specifically have seen incredible demand for
the Limited Collector’s Edition version of the game, of which
we are producing 50,000 copies in North America and Europe. In some
cases, retailers in both territories have indeed sold out of their
allotments. However, there are still copies available and the best way
to ensure you can get your hands on a collector’s edition
before launch is to preorder it today either from brick & mortar and online retail outlets, or you can order the digital limited edition version of style="font-style: italic;">Aion
from digital retailers. Go to target="_blank">Aiononline.com for a list of our
retail partners.

As a reminder, those who preorder the game today are given access to
the remaining beta events leading up to the game’s launch in
September. We’ve been incredibly happy with the response
we’ve seen to our beta testing thus far, which began a little
over a month ago.  The beta test events have not only been a
great way for players to get a taste of what promises to be the biggest
MMO of 2009, but has also provided NCsoft with the ability to identify
issues and ultimately ensure the best MMO experience possible at
Aion’s launch.

So there you have it folks, it looks like there are indeed limited
copies of the Collector’s Edition for style="font-style: italic;">Aion, so make sure
you
get your pre-orders in as soon as possible.