Hey, remember how back in October I had so many nice things to say about Sports Interactive, and the Football Manager studio's brave decision to buck the sports gaming trend and go to the trouble of rebuilding their entire game on a new engine? Yeah, about that.
Turns out it's been an absolute disaster. First, in September 2024, Football Manager 25's international mode--where players could manage national sides like England and Brazil--was binned. Then in October (the games are normally released in November) it was delayed until March 2025. Then promises were made that the first gameplay footage for the game would be shown in January 2025.
As you can probably tell by looking at a calendar, January 2025 came and went without said footage, leading many fans to fear the worst. Fears that have proved entirely founded, as Sports Interactive today announced that they're scrapping the whole damn thing. Football Manager 25 is being canned and there simply won't be a game in the long-running annual series released this season.
The team's statement reads:
Sports Interactive regret to inform that, following extensive internal discussion and careful consideration with SEGA, we have made the difficult decision to cancel Football Manager 25 and shift our focus to the next release.
For the large numbers of you who pre-ordered FM25, we thank you enormously for your trust and support - we're very sorry to have let you down.
We know this will come as a huge disappointment, especially given that the release date has already moved twice, and you have been eagerly anticipating the first gameplay reveal. We can only apologise for the time it has taken to communicate this decision. Due to stakeholder compliance, including legal and financial regulations, today was the earliest date that we could issue this statement.
We have always prided ourselves on delivering the best value for money games that bring you countless hours of enjoyment, that feel worth every moment and every penny you spend. With the launch of FM25 we set out to create the biggest technical and visual advancement in the series for a generation, laying the building blocks for a new era.
Due to a variety of challenges that we've been open about to date, and many more unforeseen, we currently haven't achieved what we set out to do in enough areas of the game, despite the phenomenal efforts of our team. Each decision to delay the release was made with the aim of getting the game closer to the desired level but, as we approached critical milestones at the turn of the year, it became unmistakably clear that we would not achieve the standard required, even with the adjusted timeline.
Whilst many areas of the game have hit our targets, the overarching player experience and interface is not where we need it to be. As extensive evaluation has demonstrated, including consumer playtesting, we have clear validation for the new direction of the game and are getting close - however, we're too far away from the standards you deserve.
We could have pressed on, released FM25 in its current state, and fixed things down the line - but that's not the right thing to do. We were also unwilling to go beyond a March release as it would be too late in the football season to expect players to then buy another game later in the year.
Through the cancellation, every effort is now focused on ensuring that our next release achieves our goal and hits the quality level we all expect. We will update you on how we are progressing with that as soon as we are able to do so.
Thank you for reading, your patience and your continued support. Our full focus now returns to creating a new era for Football Manager.
There'll be sadness and frustration from Football Manager obsessives in the days and weeks to come, sure! This long-running series has a lot of equally long-running fans, who are extremely passionate about the game. But hopefully, after they've all taken a deep breath, looked at the situation and the wider sports gaming malaise in general, they'll be somewhat happy with this.
Sports Interactive didn't have to do this! They could have ploughed on through the years, like EA Sports have done, and release an increasingly tired sports game that slowly bled its fanbase away, wondering all the while why sales were in decline. It was a brave decision for SI to tear down their annual sports game and start over, and while it was a risk that has blown up in their faces this season, I'll repeat now what I said when the first delay was announced: "Whatever happens to Football Manager 25, I'm a lot more optimistic about Football Manager 26 and 27 than I am about any other big sports game."
