User blog comment:Jimeee/Elder Scrolls Online will be subscription based/@comment-17126953-20130904144850/@comment-13269841-20130905054145

I dont think it was greed, i think it's fear. They fear that the game doesn't sell as much as they expect, so they decided to take as money as they can of those who will buy it anyway. they have fear of the failure, so they killed the chances off a huge succes.