The dude didn't take the 20k. Either he thought he could get more and he's a crook, or he was really sexually harassed. The plot thickens...

Sony and Naughty dog are innocent until proven guilty.

I think there's a lot left to this story that's going to come out over time, if it is in fact a story. The moment PlayStation's HR got involved is the moment I started speculating. It's a shame to say, but in many US companies the HR acts to protect the company, not the workers. I can absolutely see things playing out as it did, with both sides technically telling the truth - if the HR rep blew a whistle, then he/she wouldn't have kept a record; ND would have no record because PlayStation was involved already; all the while this man may have been sexually harassed, and presumably by a lead high enough up that the PlayStation HR rep felt it more important to protect Uncharted 4's upcoming launch, ND, and by extension Sony by escalating this quickly.

This all sounds like conspiracy obviously, and I'm not fond of speculating this much, but it's food for thought on an issue where people are already drawing battle lines for some reason

This is spot on. Although not always a perfect system, far better than the alternative.

Of course they wouldn't say there is evidence. They were trying to bribe that guy after all.

Well, according to him Sony tried to pay him off so that he would shut his mouth about this. It's not like a corperation with that mindset would just come out and admit to heinous misconduct now.

That being said this will be hard to prove or disprove unless Dave Ballard has hard evidence, wittnesses and names.
Whatever the case, it deserves being taken seriously.

Not supporting this dev anymore. Buying all future games used from now on.

Its common in the industry when you want to get rid of someone (mostly someone who you dont want to work for the company because they are a problem employee) you offer then salary x so many months (I've seen it happen in the UK at two different companies - not me but others, so I guess this could happen in the USA). Personally 20K is high, but apparently whats being said over at Neogaf this is quite a normal amount as it can take into account other factors such as time in Lieu etc.

Dont know why people assume that sony are paying him off, they could have just been trying to get him out of the company. The guy said himself he was having a breakdown, doesnt sound like an employee around if they are in that state. Not saying this is right or wrong, but there is so much in the air, too many people making assumptions one way or another.

doesn't seem like you were going to buy their games in the future anyways...

"unfortunately"

So you're assuming there's something to go further with?  It's not unfortunate if this was a false accusation.  It should end here IF that's the case.