Aion's release date expected for fall 2009
Localization is big, time consuming business, and NCsoft wants to make sure that they get it just right with the release of Aion: The Tower of Eternity. The US community manager, Liv, has just confirmed that NCsoft is seeking a fall 2009 launch date for the Western copy of the game that has already seen success in Korea.
The game is undergoing a significant re-write of all of the narrative content instead of being simply translated and pushed out the door. What this should produce is a game without the standard awkward mistranslated phrases, incomplete sentences, and dialogue that doesn't word wrap properly.
This style of localization is common amongst recent games that have crossed over into Western culture, such as the Megami Tensei Series and Odin Sphere from Atlus Games. It's more extensive and time consuming, but produces much better results in the long term.
For all of the questions and insights Liv has provided to the Aion audience, check out her full letter and note from the producer at the European Aion website.
