User blog comment:Jimeee/Elder Scrolls Online will be subscription based/@comment-16182976-20130822033148/@comment-5469467-20130822034545

Right. But the whole game is online. That's kinda one of the main points of being an MMO. They're not going to add an offline mode at all, and have confirmed that they will not.

But I think you're on the right track. They need to address the issue of people turning away because of the subscription.