NCSoft has teamed up with Chinese games publisher Shengqu Games to bring its most anticipated title, *Aion 2*, to the Chinese market. The company made its intentions official by exhibiting the game at ChinaJoy, Asia's largest games expo, held in Shanghai in late July 2026. The move is more than a routine product launch: it represents a structural strategic shift by a company fighting to escape years of financial underperformance.

Why China, and Why Now

On the surface, NCSoft's return to China looks like an ordinary overseas release. Beneath it lies something closer to desperation. Since 2022, the company has suffered a prolonged deterioration in results, driven by declining revenues from its flagship *Lineage* franchise and a lack of successful new titles. By 2024, operating profit had fallen to less than half its peak level. The company has also carried out significant restructuring, including a voluntary redundancy programme.

Against that backdrop, China is not so much an opportunity as a necessity. The country remains the world's largest online gaming market: according to Newzoo, a global market research firm, it was worth roughly $53bn in 2025, accounting for around a quarter of total global gaming revenues. For any company aspiring to compete at a global level, ignoring that market is not a credible option.

NCSoft has history in China. Its first-generation *Aion*, released in 2009, drew millions of concurrent players at its peak and helped spark a broader wave of enthusiasm for South Korean games in China. The *Aion 2* project attempts to harness that nostalgia and brand heritage, updated with contemporary technology.

A Proven Partner, or a Risky Bet?

NCSoft's chosen publisher, Shengqu Games, is a long-established player in the Chinese industry. The company built a substantial user base operating the *Legend of Mir* series locally and is regarded as having a deep understanding of the PC online massively multiplayer role-playing game (MMORPG) genre. For NCSoft, a local partner with fluency in China's regulatory environment and distribution networks was essential; Shengqu appeared to fit the bill.

Some industry observers are less convinced. Shengqu has in recent years focused primarily on managing its own intellectual property rather than publishing large-scale global titles. "There's a view that Shengqu has become comfortable with its old playbook and may lack the marketing muscle to sell a modern global MMORPG to a Chinese mass audience," said one industry figure. The choice of publisher could prove decisive.

The Regulatory Wall

The greater challenge for NCSoft may be not the quality of its game but China's regulatory landscape. The National Press and Publication Administration (NPPA), which controls the licensing of games for commercial release — a permit known as a *banho* (版號) — has long applied strict limits to foreign titles. Between 2021 and 2022, it suspended the issuance of *banho* licences to foreign games entirely for roughly 14 months; even after the freeze ended, approvals have come through far more slowly than before.

China's restrictions on gaming by minors add another structural constraint. Since 2021, players under 18 have been limited to one hour of gaming on weekends and public holidays, with play banned outright on weekdays. MMORPGs depend on sustained, immersive play sessions — precisely the behaviour the policy is designed to curtail. Analysts warn this will hamper new user acquisition and limit the long-term growth of the player base.

It is also worth noting that exhibiting at ChinaJoy does not guarantee a *banho*. Participation in the show is a way of gauging market appetite and formalising partnership arrangements; between that and an actual commercial launch lies a regulatory approval process with an uncertain outcome.

Signs of Life for the MMORPG Genre

The market conditions are not entirely hostile. There are indications of a modest revival of interest in MMORPGs within China. After the open-world RPG craze exemplified by *Genshin Impact*, some research suggests that hardcore gamers in their twenties and thirties — drawn to deep lore and community-centred play — are returning to traditional MMORPGs.

Gamma Data, a Chinese gaming research firm, noted in a 2025 report that while MMORPGs' overall share of the Chinese market had shrunk, core players were spending more per head and showing stronger loyalty. If *Aion 2* can mobilise the existing fanbase from the original game while attracting new players, there is room for performance that exceeds niche status.

Lessons from the Korean Playbook

Assessing NCSoft's prospects requires a look at how other South Korean publishers have fared in China recently. Krafton's *PUBG: Battlegrounds* eventually secured its position in China after a protracted licensing dispute. Nexon's *Dungeon & Fighter* continues to generate hundreds of billions of Korean won in royalties from China annually, making it one of the most dependable earners in the industry. Pearl Abyss's *Black Desert Online*, by contrast, failed to gain meaningful traction in China and effectively withdrew.

The factors distinguishing success from failure were the depth of localisation and the consistency of ongoing service. What counted was not mere translation but the redesign of content to match Chinese players' spending habits and cultural sensibilities, combined with close operational collaboration with the local publisher. Nostalgia marketing alone, the argument goes, will not be enough for *Aion 2* to replicate the original's Chinese success.

The Defining Test

This China push is not simply another item on NCSoft's international agenda. It is a simultaneous attempt to reduce dependence on the *Lineage* franchise, rebuild the *Aion* brand as a global intellectual property, and restore a company valuation that has been depressed for years. All three objectives ride on the same bet.

Industry analysts caution that a disappointing domestic performance in South Korea would undermine *Aion 2*'s appeal in China as well. "The home market result acts as leverage for everything abroad," one analyst noted. "NCSoft needs to remember that." ChinaJoy is only the starting gun. Securing a licence, launching commercially, and sustaining operations over time — each step presents fresh obstacles.

China is the world's largest, most demanding, and potentially most rewarding gaming market. NCSoft's decision to knock on that door again with *Aion 2* will serve as a meaningful indicator — not just of its own fate, but of where South Korean game publishers' China strategies should go from here.