Blame the price on Paradox. And the bugs. I mean these were the people who gave us Mount and Blade......the only game ever, far as I know, which had gamers suggesting how it should me made right since the early stages when walking inside a city was a big new thing....If there are bugs, the only explanation is that they're there because the devs had to hurry to meet publisher deadlines.
And one has to give them credit. hardly a week after the game was released they released a patch to fix one of the biggest gripes people were having with the game, couching of the lance.