I wish I could say it's still easy to purchase the game. I just checked the account management after signing up, and it seems the shop is still down. I corrected my post to reflect this.

Also, have you played EVE Online? If you like EVE, you'll like this. If you didn't like how EVE could sting you with defeat, you're probably going to not enjoy this. The combat is interesting, but you can lose everything in a single instant if you're not careful.