It's not, pre-production can vary due to different factors; project scope, prototyping, budget, and/or studio focus.
Either way, it's too much derailing, I'll leave it there.
What kind of year do you think Sony was referring to, smooth brain?
Keep trying to point out that Sony are hypocrites and Days gone was hard done by.
You will get nowhere.
One is an actual first party game which was a poor-mans TLOU and most copies sold at bargain basement prices not at launch. Bend were lucky to get the go ahead for the first game. Forget a sequel.
The other was published and partly financed simply to fill in a dry year.
Most important is the mod that adds the mini map back on hardcore mode, which basically removes the UI, then you aren't forced to check the map constantly.