As forecasted by an analyst from a famous South Korean securities exchange, NCsoft's new title Blade & Soul will reach sales of 144.5 billion won next year (20.6% of the company's total sales in the field of online games), but will still be unable to defeat Aion with regard to its contributions to NCsoft.
The analyst Mr. Lee said that from the perspective of the first CBT, Blade & Soul whose systems had undergone comprehensive innovation achieved great success in contrast with TERA, and should make more contributions to NCsoft than TERA but fewer than Aion.

As Lee said, compared to Aion which's open to those aged above 15, the adults-only game Blade & Soul (rated 18+) will attract much fewer players and thus take an obviously disadvantageous position in terms of sales. According to statistics, Aion's major users - those aged between 15 and 18 will continue playing Aion for sure, and won't play Blade & Soul as they're not old enough.
Moreover, Aion's earnings from the users aged between 15 and 18 are basically equal to those from the adults. So, even if a certain number of adults switch from Aion to Blade & Soul, Aion's sales will be influenced very slightly.

Though Blade & Soul's systems, storyline and actions etc. were widely acknowledged during its first CBT from April 27 to May 1, the game is still very hard for those new to MMORPGs. Therefore, newbies of MMORPGs may choose Aion that ranks first.
Aion, which was claimed to be "the easiest game that all can play" in its early days of OBT in November, 2008, hit 200,000 simultaneous online players three days after its OBT launch, most of whom came from WoW.

As an insider expressed, Blade & Soul is undoubtedly the No. 1 game in South Korea, but in comparison with Aion, it sets much higher requirements for players' controls.

According to another insider, it may take South Korean players a certain time to adjust themselves to Blade & Soul, which displays a unique style and boasts a somewhat complicated control system.
In the light of the game genre that South Korean players like as well as the graphics, Aion players will not necessarily pour into Blade & Soul on a large scale.

As relevant data show, after Blade & Soul's first CBT on April 27, TERA and Aion saw their trading volumes of gold, equipment and something else decline by 25% and 10% respectively; as for the popularity in net cafés, Blade & Soul failed to jump to the first place directly as imagined (this surely had much to do with the fact that most first CB testers chose to play the game at home).

On April 27, players in net cafés spent a total of 342,200 hours playing TERA, slightly less than the 346,038 hours on April 26, and Aion also suffered a decrease of about 2% in the gaming time on the same day.

Some experts believed that being the most anticipated project in South Korea, Blade & Soul would definitely catch many players' eyes in its first CBT. A great number of players rushed to join Blade & Soul's first CBT indeed.

n the meantime, Aion that has encountered no rival since 2009 keeps greeting new players. The sound player base effectively prevents Aion from being surpassed by Blade & Soul in sales.

Apart from several games to enter the market this year, WoW's fourth expansion will conduct its OBT next year, and Red 5 Studios' Firefall will land in South Korea too. A more fierce fight among various great games is about to break out!

Blade & Soul is likely to become the hottest-ever game in South Korea, but it's still too early to say whether it'll become the most profitable game in the South Korean history.