AION 2: the French Steam page still reads “September 2026” — its own Founder's Packs put release on October 5

Five weeks ahead of Advance Access, the Steam page for AION 2 shows "Release Date: September 2026". Its own purchase blocks, on the same page, say something else: Advance Access starts on September 30, and each edition grants a five-day head start on release.

September 30 plus five days comes to October 5. The page therefore contradicts itself, and a player who only looks at the header will buy believing they'll play in September.

What the Steam page actually shows

Recorded on August 25, 2026, and true of both the English and the French page:

• at the top of the purchase area: "Coming September 2026" — a month, with no day. The side panel repeats it as "Release Date: September 2026";
• on each of the three purchase blocks: "Advance Access — Starts 30 Sep";
• under each block: "Pre-Purchase this edition and play the game 5 days before release. Advance Access will begin in approximately 5 weeks."

The last two lines are consistent with each other: five weeks after August 25 does land in late September. It's the first one that doesn't match the other two. If Advance Access on September 30 precedes release by five days, then release falls in October, not September.

The five-day head start isn't a deduction — NCSOFT wrote it

This isn't a calculation on our part. NCSOFT published it on the game's Steam feed on July 22:

"Our Founder's Pack will grant you access to the game 5 days before launch to provide you with some starter essentials, and more importantly, help you express yourself through special cosmetics."

The chain is therefore complete and fully sourced from official documents: Advance Access on September 30, a five-day head start, general launch on October 5. This is the date we had already settled on earlier in the month, and nothing since has contradicted it.

The fact remains that the date shown by the store hasn't followed suit. This is the field that almost all buyers check, the one aggregators pick up, and the one that appears in Steam's automatic reminders.

The concrete trap for a buyer

Three editions are available for pre-order on Steam, and none of them is the game on its own:

An important point, and it completely changes how these prices should be read: AION 2 is listed as a free-to-play game on Steam, and NCSOFT confirmed this in the same July 22 announcement — "AION 2 Global will be free-to-play when it releases". The Founder's Packs therefore do not buy access to the game. They buy a five-day head start, thirty days of Quairerk Special Membership, and items.

Hence the question that the Steam page leaves confused: if you don't buy a pack, there is nothing for you to expect on September 30. You'll play on October 5. Yet a release date displayed as "September 2026" leads anyone who doesn't read the purchase blocks to believe otherwise.

What the three tiers include

NCSOFT has detailed the contents in French, and the structure is cumulative:

• The standard edition is limited to the essentials: five days of Advance Access, the special Quairerk membership valid for one month, a supply chest and an exclusive title.
• The deluxe edition adds two appearances, one for armor, one for a weapon.
• The ultimate edition includes everything above and adds a styling chest, a third armor appearance, a companion and a pair of wings.

The month of membership is a recent addition, announced on August 21, and it applies retroactively: the publisher was careful to specify that no distinction would be made between a purchase already made and one yet to come. Those who pre-ordered in July also receive it.

What the membership unlocks, in NCSOFT's own terms: access to the remote warehouse, to personal trading, to the Light Breeze Merchants, to the Marketplace and to the Luna exchange shop, a raised maximum Od energy capacity, and more selectable Od energy cubes in expeditions, Transcendence dungeons and sacred zones.

The French language question, settled by the same page

The list of supported languages is categorical, and is worth reading closely:

"English*, French, German, Spanish - Spain, Japanese*, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Korean*, Traditional Chinese* — *Languages with full audio support."

French is indeed included, but without an asterisk: translated text, with a choice of English, Japanese, Korean or Traditional Chinese voice-over. A PC exclusive, moreover: the page describes an MMORPG "exclusively on PC, built with Unreal Engine 5", in a world "36 times larger than in the first installment".

What to remember

1. The date Steam displays — "September 2026" — does not match what its own purchase blocks state.
2. The only date the store states precisely is that of the preview: September 30, reserved for holders of a Founder's Pack.
3. With the five days of Advance Access confirmed by NCSOFT, the general launch falls on October 5.
4. Without a pack, nothing happens on September 30 — and there is nothing to buy in order to play, since the game is free.

We will keep monitoring the "release date" field on the Steam page: its update, whenever it comes, will be the signal that NCSOFT has aligned its store with its own communications.