they've always had the discs themselves pretty cheap, just to get the word out. Walmart here in ohio had the discs for $20 when it came out new, last year. I've not seen any numbers on subscribers, but everyone I know playing it loves the game. I played for 6 months beta/open and it was pretty fun, i enjoyed it.
depending on if SOE gets shit together and fixes stuff, i may be going back.
