NCSoft announced on the Aion website that the MMORPG Aion launch version for the West will not come with GameGuard:

“After analyzing our open beta test results Aion will not feature GameGuard at launch. We will however continue to pursue ways to effectively utilize GameGuard within Aion in the future. Right now we’re focused on providing players with the best possible Aion experience.”

nProtect GameGuard (sometimes called GG) is an anti-cheating software developed by Korean company INCA Internet. It is installed alongside many Asian MMORPGs such as Aion: The Tower of Eternity, Lineage II, 9Dragons, Cabal Online, Phantasy Star Universe, GunZ: The Duel, Flyff, Pangya and Ragnarok Online to block malicious applications and common methods of cheating. nProtect GameGuard provides B2B2C (Business to Business to Consumer) security services for online game companies and portal sites.

GameGuard hides the game application process, monitors the entire memory range, terminates applications defined by the game vendor and INCA Internet to be cheats, blocks certain calls to DirectX functions and Windows APIs, and auto-updates itself to change as new threats surface. nProtect GameGuard is launched via GameMon.des with a driver dump_wmimmc.sys.

GameGuard is criticized for being flawed, using employing root-kit like techniques and causing conflicts with many hardware configurations.  A stability problem during the open beta caused an outcry in the gamer community.  The decision to drop GameGuard is welcome by the gamer community.

With over 400,000 pre-orders that broke MMORPG records, Aion is projected to be the largest MMORPG release for 2009 in the western market.