There are alot of rumors but little in the way of substantiated fact. So I offer these observations for what they are worth. #1.AOL has always had pay-to-play backgammon. #2.The old pay-to-play backgammon closed when ea went to open beta testing and all the old staff from pay-to-play moved in. #3.All aol has told their staff is that ea will remain free while in open testing. So my observation is this, AOL has not been known in the past to throw income away and is exactly what they would be doing if they replace the pay-to-play game with ea and left it as a free game. They already know they have a customer base for the game willing to pay-to-play, so a new enhanced version of the game would logically be seen as a way to expand that base. I may well be wrong and really hope I am but ask yourself this, if you were in AOLs place what possible benefit would there be in leaving this latest aquisition on the net as a free game when you know it will produce a substantial income as a pay-to-play game?