Lol, no, your comparison doesn't work. Naughty Dog was never relegated to being a support studio, they were top dogs at Sony. Also Henning left because of politics, which has nothing to do with this case.
Bend was partly support studio that mainly did small projects and got one shot at AAA and then temporarily went back to being support studio after that. You cannot compare Bend to other Sony flagship studios.
Imagine these guys staying at Bend all these years only to leave after their big break with sequel in production... Yeah, that doesn't make a lot of sense.
Yes my comparison works, Hennig was Directing Uncharted 4, her version got cancelled and taken over by new leadership.
Days Gone 2 was confirmed to still be in development by Jeff Ross, he and John Garvin were Directors and they didn't stay around to continue working on the game.
Bend haven't been relegated to a support studio, they're working on something bigger than Days Gone based on the above information, if Jeff's comments are true then Days Gone 2 is that game, under new leadership or it's a new IP.
Politics effects everything in office culture, I know because I've been a part of that junk and I can only imagine how bad being a creative environment, with different ideas being flung around every day could get.
BTW the ICE team are a part of Naughty Dog and they work on the tools for PlayStation's systems, they help every Studio out within Worldwide Studios.
Bend didn't get only one shot on a AAA project, they used to make a bunch of AAA titles, they had a break for quite a long time, made Days Gone and are now working on something which is bigger than that game, which is very comparable to Naughty Dog's situation, just like many Studios within Sony's family of devs.
The thing is you're assuming Jason's source was bang on, when they could very well not know the real details or more than a narrow vision of what their studio is working on, given Jeff Ross was one of the main Directors on Days Gone 2, based on his own comments this person clearly has no clue what is really going on at Bend.
Another thing to consider is that Jeff Ross and John Garvin could have things going on in their lives that effect their abilities to dedicate themselves to long term work schedules, anything could have happened, they could have pitched Days Gone 2, got it Green-Lit then due to personal reasons they could keep working at the Studio.
If the situation was that their ideas weren't liked by Herman Hulst and other higher ups, but they were really passionate about it maybe it was too painful to keep working at Bend.
Bend have worked hard on new IP ideas many times before Days Gone 1 got green-lit, like their Vita Projects, they've laid themselves out there many times to try and get games off of the ground and if Days Gone 2 wasn't working as is, then another team pitches ideas, which got green-lit that could be difficult for Directors of creative projects to take, but that doesn't mean they would or could get in the way if the other plan being put to work.
In that situation you take a step back, try to fit in lower down or you move on, it seems like Jeff Ross and John Garvin moved on.
Perhaps Jeff and John's situations were more amicable than Amy Hennig's, the comparison fits though, Amy left because she couldn't bring her vision to life, the same sounds true of Jeff Ross and John Garvin's vision for the game coming after Day Gone 1.
James Sawyer Ford
