Turbine now has taken its first major step into controlling all aspects of billing for Asheron's Call and Asheron's Call 2: Fallen Kings by allowing the creation of new accounts using the new Turbine billing system. This system replaces the old billing method which ran through Microsoft. This is one of the last major steps for Turbine to detatch itself from Microsoft with the AC series. This is NOT the "exciting news". Information regarding the new system can be found at this link.
Thanks to "Storm" for this news!