Salesforce Maintenance Exams are moving to Trailhead

Waking this morning, I found an interesting email in my inbox. Salesforce have announced at TrailheadDX that Salesforce Maintenance Exams are moving to Trailhead!
And best of all Maintenance Exams will become free after the Summer ’18 exam cycle.
Salesforce Maintenance Exams are moving to Trailhead
Here is the email if you didn’t see or receive it:

Why is this good news?
Well firstly, this move will remove the $100 charge for maintaining your ceritifications. So if you had your Admin and Dev certifications, that is $200 a year saved!
Secondly Trailhead has become a lynch-pin for Salesforce and allows people to learn about the platform even without having access to a Salesforce org. This will no doubt be the start of an overall move to Trailhead platform. As we have already seen the Platform Dev II exam require certain Trailhead modules to be completed.
And finally in my personal opinion the WebAssessor site is a little date and clunky. Especially as the number of certifications + Maintenance Exams have started to expand in recent years.
What can we expect to see moving forward?
As mentioned above, there is already a number of Trailheads which relate to certifications/accredidation. So we can expect to see the tighter integration of Trailhead & Salesofrce Certifications moving forward.
The future really is, Trailhead.
Where can I get more information?
Here is a Frequently Asked Questions section on the Certification site, which explains the timelines and changes in more detail.
I didn’t get this one, but that is great news. First of because I like Trailhead, but second is the fee you have to pay every year. Looking forward to how it all is going to work.
Agreed it is great news, and likewise not having to pay the fee is a small but great step!