The March 2012 Vanguard Producer's Letter announces Vanguard is going free-to-play. Here's word on the MMORPG jumping on the free bandwagon, or off the sinking subscription ship, depending on your outlook:

At SOE, giving players choices is the theme of how we're moving forward as a company. We see free-to-play (or as we refer to it, Free to Play. Your Way.) as a big part of our future and we like the flexibility it offers players. Therefore, I'm happy to announce Vanguard will be the next in line of our AAA games to make this transition. Since we've literally just begun on the work, I'm not ready to go into much detail. However, I will say that you can expect something similar to EverQuest®, EverQuest® II and DC Universe™ Online