Remember that they have two teams and that their first year or so of PS4 cycle was spent on TLoU: R. I expect three this gen though, because after 4 Druckmann and Straley will end the franchise to move on to stuff they created themselves, so we'd get a few years on a new IP towards the late half of the gen. Maybe they pull four if they cycle the new IP development quickly enough instead of releasing at the last hour like TLoU did. 

I hope the guy doesn't get fired. Companies get crazy about their secrets, even though this one was plain as day.

They later denied they split into two teams and said they are still one team focusing on one project, but have multiple projects in mind, including their ICE Team stuff.

He's fine, he's too high up in ND to be fired for a stumble that isn't the first time nd have done that

Depends on who we're talking to. Under Amy Hennig they were two teams, and were confirmed as such during TLoU's development, but then now that Druckmann and Straley are leading development it's one team again. I personally believe it's still a two group system, but that, like Insomniac used to do, they just cross over. Either way I highly doubt they're a single team working on a single project no matter what the current lead is saying.  

If Q1 2016 works well for UC4 I can see Naughty Dog perhaps thinking about putting it's release schedule ofr all games into the first half of the year. Leave the holidays for releases of big 3rd party games, especially if you have marketing exclusivity for some big 3rd party holiday games. I'm sure 3rd parties would probably appreciate SOny leavin gthe Holiday release calendar relatively free of big 1st party IP and only releasing 2nd tier games in the holidays. With 1st party games that have already sold well in the early part of the year you can even plan  3rd party/1st party bundle double whammies for the holidays. Imagine, for instance, if The Order had actually been a critical success you could do a The Order + Battlefront bundle for the standard $399 price. In an alternate universe where The Order has already sold 2.5 million because it's actually a great game, by the time the holidays roll around it has become a game that can be literally given away as an incentive to buy PS4 becuase it's already made profit for Sony. You can't really do those sorts of bundles with a game that's releasing at the same time as your 3rd party marketing exclusive games, and needs to make a return in its own right.

Guys Guys, What if he was accidentally going to say the First of us, but then said the first of the last of us.
It could imply that the next game is a prequel.

but power jump was smaller this time as well

No it's not. Actually, it's the complete opposite. Computer tech was improving much faster in 2004 and 2009. The big chip makers aren't able to keep up with Moore's law anymroe. It's getting too hard to scale down the transistors, and as a result, harder to improve the tech at the same rate.