Funcom have, seconds ago, fired out a press release announcing that Age of Conan is joining the ever-growing ranks of free to play MMO titles:

Funcom is excited to announce that the award-winning and critically acclaimed massively multiplayer online game ‘Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures’ will receive a digital re-launch this summer under the new name ‘Age of Conan: Unrated’. As well as reaffirming its position as the sexiest and most savage MMO in the world, ‘Age of Conan: Unrated’ will also feature a hybrid business model allowing anyone to freely roam the vast lands of Hyboria either as free players or premium subscribers with access to extra content.
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The new business model will give players the opportunity to choose whether they want to play for free or become premium subscribers, and Funcom is also introducing an in-game store to the game where both free players and premium subscribers can purchase exclusive content such as weaponry and mounts. For a full overview of what differs from the free and premium offerings, please view the Frequently Asked Questions now available on ‘Age of Conan’ community website.

This will be a significant reworking of Age of Conan, which has a huge release followed by a bit of a drop-off after gamers seemed to exhaust the content. Since then though the game has received many content updates and there's a lot more going on, so it will be fascinating to see what effect this change has on the player base. Stay tuned!