more info at gameforge-aion website. just checked it today
http://www.aionfreetoplay.com/website/as for your question knuckles..... this is on the interview white posted:
In addition to these account types, all players have the choice to purchase a Gold Pack which, for a limited time, not only removes all the restrictions from their account, but also gives additional benefits to improve the game experience, such as lower instance cool down times, increased PvP currency rewards, and more. We are currently evaluating if we will provide this Gold Pack as an optional subscription service.
and from official website the main things i could take off were:
- all servers will remain as they are, no merges will happen, and 1 english, 1 french and 1 german will be added.
- all character info will remain, be it items, stats, abyss points and rank, warehouse, etc
- all subscribers (active or not) will get the veteran account status. new players of the f2p model will get starter status and then upgrade to veteran by buying the gold pack.
- all shop codes that you may have still to redeem, should be redeemed before it goes to f2p model
- legions will also be transfered, but in order to have the administration rights you might have on it, the legion leader MUST do the transition also.
- starter status will have only 2 character slots and limitations to chat, broker, private shop and other small restrictions, in order to prevent bot and rmt's infestation.
- new forums will be created for F2P model, however the old forums will be archived and still avaiable for viewing by the players.
- veteran reward will still be avaiable, as long you are a gold pack buyer (this smells to me like a montlhy fee more than a 1 time purchase)
and as a personal observation..... considering aion 3.0 is about to be (or was allready) launched in korea, i start to feel that the f2p model will start with the localization for europe ready for launch also.... i can only hope hehe ^^
edit: replying to knuckles 1st question
At present I am playing on a US server. Can I continue to do so?
Yes. This microsite only relates to the European operation of Aion. The American versions are not affected by the change of publisher. For more information about the US version of Aion, please click here www.Aiononline.com.
after some search, i found nothing related to US or KR aion becoming free also. but will be strange to have only europe version F2P.