UPDATE: In EA's quarterly conference call, the publisher revealed that SWTOR has dipped below one million subscribers and will begin its transition to free to play in November.

Original story:
Well, this seems like an admission. This fall, Star Wars: The Old Republic will be making the jump from subscription-based to free-to-play. The massively-budgeted MMO has been struggling to retain its subscriber base since release, something that the growing F2P market definitely hasn't helped with. So, rather than try and beat SWTOR's competitors, Bioware has decided to join them.

"Players want flexibility and choice," BioWare said in a statement. "The subscription-only model presented a major barrier for a lot of people who wanted to become part of The Old Republic universe."

Players who prefer the no-money option will be able to play through SWTOR's story up to level 50 without any hinderance, but they will be locked out of some endgame content. For example, non-paying players will be restricted to only a few warzone entrances per week.

For those who want all the content they can get, there are two options. They can continue to pay their $15 monthly subscription to unlock everything, or pay for in-game "Cartel Coins" to spend on more stuff.