With two weeks left before Aion launches in the west, and their Open Beta event dwindling down, the team behind Aion is happy to announce that they've achieved just over 300,000 active pre-order subscriptions. Obviously these numbers aren't as high as what uber-hyped Warhammer Online or Age of Conan were announcing last year, but it could very well be the fact that MMO players are now getting smarter with their pre-order purchases during the recession. What really sets Aion apart from Warhammer Online or Age of Conan, however, is they've already been through a lot of their stress and bug testing in the East, with millions of users playing Aion in China and Korea.

Either way, 300,000 pre-orders is still a very respectable amount, and the team believes that if they can just continue to keep up their development cycle and continue to push content out the door, then Aion could very well succeed in an industry where many others have fallen short. Do remember that if you pre-order Aion, it also comes with some neat head start items, a set of level 30 wings (superior to the in-game level 30 wings) and a 48-hour head start on the general population. You can also download the Aion Open Beta Client here and you can check out the game for yourself!