Aion pulls in one million players in China

Within the first four days of launch, Aion pulled in one million players who happily paid for at least one hour of gameplay, reports GI.biz.

Shanda Interactive Entertainment began charging users an hourly rate for the MMORPG's "Yao Sai Pan Long" scenario, but despite the success, Deutsche Bank has told investors to hold off on purchasing stock in Shanda. This was due to player concerns over the cost, high hardware requirements and the current lack of in-game content.

"We are very pleased with our users' overwhelming response to and the popularity of Aion during this short period," said Shanda CEO Diana Li. "We believe [this] further validates the success of our multi-channel strategy to source content for our games portfolio."

Shanda secured the rights to distribute Aion in China, after the company bought a 30 percent stake in NCsoft back in 2007.

Aion: The Tower of Eternity is slated for a autumn release in Europe and North America.