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This has been a big month for MMO shakeups in the PC world, and what looks like the biggest announcement of them all is capping it off. World of Warcraft, the biggest dog in the western MMO world, has thrown open the gates to even more of the unwashed masses today with their new free to download Starter Edition, allowing anyone and everyone to play the game absolutely free to level 20.

Last week we learned that Star Wars Galaxies will be closing down in December thanks to the end of their license with LucasArts, the end of an 8-year saga that had its ups and downs.

Sony Online Entertainment has announced that their Station Pass, a one-price ticket to all of their PC MMO offerings (except SWG) and one PS2 offering is getting a price cut and prepayment bonuses. Instead of $30/month, $20/month will get you into Everquest, Everquest II, the venerable PS2 Everquest Online Adventures, the quite new DC Universe Online, and member benefits on Free Realms, among other games. Prepay for a year and the price drops down to $15/month, the current premium price of a single MMO.

LEGO Universe has announced a free to play "lite" mode is coming soon, giving players a limited area of the full game to try things out.

Also jumping into the Free to Play pool will be City of Heroes with their Episode 21 release. A new Paragon Market will debut, and subscribers will be dubbed VIP members and receive 400 Paragon Points a month to spend in the marketplace.

While Champions Online went free to play in January, they only recently showed up on Steam with a handful of other Free to Play games.

Any way you look at it there's something for almost anyone to choose from. Except maybe a sci-fi MMO, hmm.

The PlayStation Blog has news of DCUO becoming a digital download on the PlayStation Store sometime soon, but the price tag is pretty steep. That’s the full $60 for the client software and first month of play time. Insert bellyaching about not having to print a disc, manual or key here, but I get it, they have to kiss the keister of retailers. At least, they have to until they discontinue the disc entirely and just sell it through the Store. Then we can see the price come down.

One of the things Sony made sure to line up when announcing the PlayStation Move and Subcontroller was a long list of developers that have pledged support. After hearing on the PS Nation Podcast 156 that High Velocity Bowling will support the Move, I perked up. I'd been waiting for an excuse to pick that one up, and that's a good one. Once they also mentioned that SOE was signed on, I was able to connect the dots.

What dots? The "How can they put Free Realms on the PS3 when it's completely stuffed with mouse-control mini games? Nobody has a mouse on the PS3!" dots. They're gonna use the Move, and I think that would be fun!

Granted that's my prediction, and nothing's been announced, but it makes total sense. Anyway, check out the full Move press release after the jump, including the list of developers that have pledged support. Are any studios you like on the list?

SOE is proud to note that their free to play tween-focused MMO has reached 9 million players in under a year. They've also recently added mounts to the in-game store, which is kind of odd considering that you really just need to push a button to automatically walk anywhere -- when you're not teleporting much closer to your target first, that is -- but hey, more customization is important in free to play games.

I stopped playing Free Realms long ago primarily because I couldn't convince the Mrs to jump in, and my kids are still too young for it. By the time they're old enough to take any interest in it, I imagine the landscape will be even more different, but if you've got kids in the target age range, well, apparently you can do a lot worse.

What's not in this press release? Anything about the PS3 version of the game. See the full press release after the jump.

Free Realms continues to blaze a trail in the youth-oriented MMO market. It has officially racked up 5 million players to date and in a recent event Sony Online Entertainment president John Smedley shared some surprising findings related to making a game inviting to the pre-credit-card crowd that can also make money.