A company works on multiple games at the same time, yes. Some of those games are exploratory and have a low likelihood of seeing the light of day. Some are rehashes of proven formulas with good confidence that they'll be profitable.
Something goes awry. The "known profitable" game is very much so behind schedule. An executive decision is made to give development another year.
There is now a gap in the release schedule. Leadership shops around and talks to the other teams. They say, "If you can promise me that you can ship at this time then I can promise you your game will ship. If not, then I can't make any promises because our primary game is taking the launch slot a year from now and the world might be entirely different in two years."
Those leading the less important game go back to their team with the news. They say, "Hey. We have a real opportunity here for this game to see the light of day, but we will need to make concessions to do so. Do you want to try for it?"
Most sane teams respond by saying "Yes, we will make that work" because no creative wants to work on a game that fails to see the light of day.
This results in a game being shipped in a state that is perceived as being rushed by consumers. The game was rushed, but there was never a guarantee that the game would release if not rushed.
Is this an idyllic scenario? No, but it is a pretty good scenario compared to what could've happened.