NCsoft Bans 16,000 Aion Cheaters

NCsoft has enacted what it calls a "massive" ban across North American and European servers for its Aion subscription PC MMO, removing user accounts for violations. The violations targeted were primarily "botting" -- or modifying the client to automate play -- or illegally buying and selling in-game currency. The offending accounts -- "nearly 16,000" in total -- were closed as part of a server-wide reboot. "Please note that if your account was closed for the use of 3rd party software (botting) or participating in RMT (gold buying/selling) the evidence for the account closure was gathered over several weeks," wrote community manager Andrew Beegle on the game's official forums. Beegle explains that NCsoft monitors accounts for actions that modify the game client or automate in the fashion of a bot and "flags" possible violators for a closer look, gathering several instances before banning an account. Aion saw a strong launch, selling a total of 970,000 copies in its first week in North America and Europe. The game was largely single-handedly responsible for driving NCsoft's third quarter revenues -- despite being released at the very end of the quarter -- creating an 836 percent leap in year-over-year quarterly profits on revenues that more than doubled.