Sounds like the game wasn’t exactly finished. Plus its just one project they finished at a studio, they could certainly have used the employees to work on a different new project.
I mean netcode for pc-to-pc games at least isn’t really rocket science. I’m not as familiar with the crossplay aspect, but I’d hazard a guess that it is only difficult because console manufacturers have locked multiplayer networking behind their own subscription services. I can understand why they went the route they did, but maybe crossplay is overvalued if the cost is stuff like this.
Sounds like the game wasn’t exactly finished. Plus its just one project they finished at a studio, they could certainly have used the employees to work on a different new project.