Why would they not want to start owning their games after Sony refused to greenlight a sequel? Who wants to work on a game and engine, while having the game sold millions only to be told... Sorry no sequel for you.
This interview is a few months after The Order 1886 came out and nothing in this interview suggests the sequel wasn't greenlit.
If you read it is sounds like they were wanted to go multiplatform and publish their own games and own their own IPs while working on The Order 1886.
And no the game did not sell millions and has a 63 metacritic score