NCsoft recently released their 3rd Quarter company earnings that include Aion's descent into the western region. With an already strong hold in Japan, Taiwan, and China, NCsoft's North American and European markets had been mediocre at best with City of Heroes and Guild Wars maintaining only a small portion of their overall company portfolio. Their eastern success with the Lineage games continued to be their true claim to fame.


As pre-orders for Aion soared in the North American region, it seemed fairly obvious that NCsoft had finally found a game that would give the company global appeal but how well exactly did it do? Here is the break down for Q3 earnings.


- NCsoft North American sales has more than doubled in the last year.

- Sales over all have doubled in the last year.

- Aion now holds over half of NCsoft's total sales, a accomplishment previously attributed to Lineage II.

- Aion sold 500,000 boxes in NA and 470,000 boxes in Europe for the last quarter.

- NCsoft's net income has continued to rise due to the success of Aion.

- Operating costs have risen due primarily due to staffing and advertising costs.


It seems the gamble made to attempt westernization has paid off making Aion what could be a sound success and proof that westernization can work.

While that all sounds like great news and I'm certain the NCsoft is quite pleased with their company's performance, the real tell in Aion's success will be with the next quarter after the initial 30 days of free gametime has worn off for those nearly a million boxes that were purchased at launch and players decide if they will be sticking around for just a bit longer. As we have learned from other games such as Age of Conan and Warhammer Online, initial sales are only as good as the game's long term viability.