A game be released, yet not be ready for final judgment. This is a work in progress, and likely will be released as one as well.
Since the Internet it's rare that anything actually ever gets "finished" anyway. Actually, in the case of artwork this had been happening for centuries. Masters repainted their work over decades.
But it needs to be far enough along in development that all the essential functionality is there. If you release a buggy unusable piece of garbage then it will turn off potential players, even if you make huge improvements later.