The beautiful fantasy MMORPG Aion is going free-to-play in Europe in February 2012, according to NCSoft. Not only that, but the game is also changing publishers from NCSoft to the German-based Gameforge. Aion came out in 2009 to mixed reception and has since seen the release of just one expansion pack, Assault on Balaurea. In the US, NCSoft is still evaluating their business model so there's no word if Aion going to be FTP here in February, or ever.

In an official letter to the Aion community, NCSoft said, "There's good news for all Daevas and those who wish to become one: from February 2012, Aion will be switching to a free-to-play model. The monthly subscriptions will be dropped and the basic game content will be available to you for free from the start." They continued, saying, "Additionally, we will be offering special packs that offer you further liberties: for example, opening your own store and collecting an unlimited daily amount of aether and essences."

When the game switches over to FTP, Gameforge seem as if they'll be following the now standard model of different types of account tiers for players. This will allow users to choose which benefits they want based on how much they want to pay for the game. There will be three tiers: Starter, Veteran, and Gold User.

The Starter tier players will have access to all regions and will be able to create a hero up to level 55 and experience all 3,900 quests that the game has to offer. However, you will only be able to make two characters total, and you won't be able to use certain chat channels or private training.

Veteran players are those who've already played Aion before the switch over to free-to-play. These players will be able to open a store and do business with Trade Brokers and send letters with attachments.

Finally, Gold Users will give players the complete game experience along with several advantages like shorter cool down times for instances and more AP points for victory in PvP. Plus, all of the game options will be unlocked and you can revert back to a previous tier at any time.

For all of the information you could possibly need about Aion going free-to-play check out the Aion website's incredibly in-depth FAQ section about the switch.

I played Aion for a while and thought that it was easily one of the best looking MMOs out there, but it just wasn't able to hook me in like some other MMOs have been able to. But enough about me, when Aion goes FTP in February will you be creating a character?