AION 2's Steam Listing Sets the Global Launch for October 5 at 13:00 UTC

NC has now announced the hour itself, and it covers both dates: AION 2's servers open at 13:00 UTC on Wednesday, September 30 for Founder's Pack Early Access, and at 13:00 UTC on Monday, October 5 for the free-to-play launch. That is 6:00 AM on the US West Coast, 3:00 PM in Central Europe and 4:00 PM in Eastern Europe on both days.

For October 5 this confirms the time already set on Steam's record, covered below. For September 30 it is the first hour published anywhere: Steam's record lists Advanced Access with a date only. NC's September 28 pre-download notice adds one practical detail: the pre-downloaded files are encrypted and are decrypted on September 30, which takes longer on slower PCs, so start the client early.

AION 2 now has a launch hour. Steam's record for the game (app 3393110) sets its release to Monday, October 5, 2026 at 13:00:00 UTC. The record lists it twice, as the release date and as the store release date, and it was last updated on September 21, 2026. Steam's public store data agrees on the day, showing October 5, 2026 and a "coming soon" state, with NC as publisher and developer.

This is the time Steam is set to switch AION 2 from "coming soon" to released. The publisher sets it on its own listing, so it is the most precise launch time NC has published anywhere so far. It is not shown on the store page itself, which displays the date only; the hour lives in Steam's record for the app, which SteamDB mirrors.

The day itself is not new. NC announced October 5 at gamescom Opening Night Live in August, as covered in our October 5 launch date story. What changes today is the hour.

13:00 UTC on Wednesday, September 30 and on Monday, October 5, 2026 is:

• US West (PDT, UTC−7)6:00 AM
• US East (EDT, UTC−4)9:00 AM
• Brazil (BRT, UTC−3)10:00 AM
• UK (BST, UTC+1)2:00 PM
• Central Europe (CEST, UTC+2)3:00 PM
• Eastern Europe (EEST, UTC+3)4:00 PM
• Japan (JST, UTC+9)10:00 PM

Every zone above is still on summer time on both days; clocks change later in October in Europe and in early November in the US. The countdown on our homepage converts both moments to your own time zone automatically.

The hours are no longer in doubt: NC has announced 13:00 UTC for both openings. What NC has not said is how long decrypting the pre-downloaded client takes on September 30, beyond that it depends on your PC, or whether a maintenance window will sit around either opening. Launch-day queues are also unannounced. We will update this page if NC moves either time.

Founder's Pack Early Access runs from September 30 to October 4, five days, for owners of any of the three Founder's Pack tiers, on the platform the pack was bought on, with servers opening at 13:00 UTC on September 30. The free-to-play launch for everyone follows on October 5, also at 13:00 UTC. NC's notes on how Early Access servers relate to launch servers are in our Early Access servers explainer, and the full timeline is kept current in the release date guide.