The devs are probably working harder than anyone who post here have ever worked especially seeing how some people seem to have an insight into SE that no one has and thinks they have a small team, if they do have a small team they have probably writing over 100,000 lines of code a week.

Also modern games take alot longer to make than 1 year, take this example (I know, I know FPS GTFO, but its the best example I could think of atm) Modern Warefare 3 isnt even out yet, but they are probably working on MW4 right now because there is so much code, and it allows the devs to have a lax approach so they arent overworked, if they are going to pull the plug after MW3 is out they can do it and they havent lost as much money as they would releasing a rushed product.