User blog comment:Jimeee/Elder Scrolls Online will be subscription based/@comment-15410713-20130904034052/@comment-5558140-20130905022246

that grand total was basically what a makeshift developer pays, so say if i decided to just jump in and do it right now, with all those shortcuts, thats what the cost would be. got that much in your back pocket? now imagine that price multiplied by factors such as marketing, maintenance, having real developers who have masters degree's in game design, computer engineering, network architecture, and don't make anything less than 150k a year. developing all new hardware for their networks,etc..

it was a general example of just how expensive it is even when you take all of the cheapest shortcuts available.