AION 2 Adds Apple Pay and Cash App Pay as Payment Methods from September 23

In the early hours of September 16, 2026 (the board timestamps the post 01:22), the AION 2 Global team published a short notice titled "Announcement Regarding the Addition of New Payment Methods (Apple Pay / Cash App Pay)" to the official notice board. It is the first new entry on the board since the August 26 Launch Scale Test notice, and the first payment-related notice since the July 22 one-time card verification post.

The substance fits in one sentence: to "provide a more convenient payment service," NC is adding two payment methods — Apple Pay and Cash App Pay — with an implementation date of Wednesday, September 23, 2026. That is exactly one week before Founder's Pack Early Access opens on September 30 and twelve days before the October 5 free-to-play launch, so the new options should be live for anyone who has not yet bought a pack, and for the first Membership and shop purchases at launch.

As of September 16, 2026 the notice gives a date and two lists, and nothing else. It does not say which storefront the methods are being added to, does not mention a payment provider, and carries no pricing, fee or currency detail. Where this article goes beyond the notice, it says so.

NC lists Apple Pay as available in 56 countries and territories. Reproduced in the notice's own order: UAE, Greece, South Africa, Norway, New Zealand, Niger, Denmark, Germany, Latvia, Romania, Luxembourg, Lithuania, Liechtenstein, Malaysia, Mexico, Monaco, Montenegro, Moldova, Malta, United States, Vatican City, Bulgaria, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, San Marino, Sweden, Switzerland, Spain, Slovenia, Singapore, Iceland, Ireland, Azerbaijan, Estonia, the United Kingdom, Australia, Austria, Ukraine, Israel, Italy, Georgia, Czech Republic, Kazakhstan, Qatar, Canada, Kuwait, Croatia, Cyprus, Türkiye, Palestine, Faroe Islands, Portugal, Poland, France, Finland and Hungary.

A few things stand out when that list is read against the global service's four launch regions (North America, South America, Europe and Japan). The United States, Canada, Brazil, Mexico and most of the EU are covered. Japan — a launch region in its own right — is not on the list. Neither are the Netherlands or Belgium, both Apple Pay markets, and neither is Argentina or any other South American country besides Brazil. Australia and New Zealand are included even though NC has said there will be no Oceania server at launch. NC offers no explanation for the composition of the list, and this article does not speculate on one.

NC adds one blanket caveat: "Payment methods are available depending on the supported country and your usage environment." Read plainly, being in a listed country is necessary but may not be sufficient — the device, browser or account region you pay from can also matter. The notice does not define "usage environment" further.

The second method is Cash App Pay, Block's checkout option tied to a Cash App balance or linked bank account. NC lists exactly one country for it: the United States. No other region is named, and the same "supported country and usage environment" caveat applies.

For US players the practical upshot is a second card-free route to the paid layer NC set out in the July 8 Business Model notice — the Founder's Packs, the $15/month Membership, the shop and the Battle Passes. Whether Apple Pay or Cash App Pay changes anything about the one-time verification step that NC's provider applies to first-time card payments is not addressed in the new notice; that July 22 post described a card-issuer 3D Secure flow, and NC has not said how, or whether, it applies to wallet-based methods.

The biggest open question is scope. AION 2 Global sells through two storefronts — Steam and NC's own PURPLE launcher — and Steam purchases are processed by Valve through the Steam wallet and Steam's own payment options, not by NC. NC's notice is posted to its own board and phrased as "we will be adding new payment methods," which reads most naturally as NC's own checkout; but the notice does not name PURPLE, the web shop, or Steam, so as of September 16 the storefront coverage is unconfirmed. If you intend to buy a Founder's Pack with Apple Pay specifically, keep in mind that pack access is locked to the platform you purchase on, so the storefront choice matters for more than the payment step.

Also absent: any statement on whether the methods will be available inside the game client, on the website, or both; whether regional pricing changes; and whether further methods (Google Pay, PayPal, local payment schemes) are planned. NC closes the notice with a general promise to "provide you with more convenient and diverse payment services," which is not a commitment to any specific addition.

We will update this page if NC amends the notice or posts a follow-up before or on September 23. Until then, the official notice linked below is the only primary source, and everything above that is not attributed to it is our reading of the text.