That is true. Beginning with tickets sold in mid-February, they expire at the end of the year following the year in which they were purchased, i.e. a ticket purchased today would expire 12/31/2018. Once the ticket expires, you can apply the amount you paid for the ticket towards the purchase of a new ticket so you won't completely lose your money if you can't use the ticket.
All tickets now expire 14 days after first use. They did away with the "no expiration" option which would allow you to use only a few days off a multi-day ticket and save the remaining days for another trip a while ago.