Football Manager 25 Cancelled Only Weeks Ahead of March Launch

In an unexpected twist, the longstanding soccer management simulation series, Football Manager, is hitting pause this year for the first time in its two-decade legacy. Football Manager 25, originally set to make its debut in March 2025, has been taken off the table after two previous delays.

Sports Interactive, the developers, alongside their publisher Sega, announced the shift. They revealed their decision to channel efforts into the series’ subsequent installment, as achieving the quality benchmarks for FM25 without further postponements became implausible.

Football Manager 25 was set to be a landmark release, promising significant technological and visual enhancements, a revamp unmatched for generations. Anticipation was high for upgraded animations, an improved user interface, a redesigned match day experience, and, notably, the debut of women’s soccer in the game.

However, Sports Interactive found themselves grappling with the ambitious scope of these enhancements. They had already taken an unusual step by deferring the release past its typical fall launch window to March, thus missing the peak of the soccer season. Moreover, no gameplay has been showcased, and a development update anticipated in January failed to materialize.

In a statement, Sports Interactive explained the challenges they faced were both foreseen and unexpected. Despite their team’s extraordinary efforts, they acknowledged falling short of their objectives in key game areas. Each delay aimed to enhance quality, but as critical deadlines approached, it became evident the desired standards wouldn’t be met, even with the stretched timeline.

The developers affirmed that releasing an incomplete game and then patching it wasn’t a viable option. They dismissed the possibility of delaying further, noting it would be impractical to hope for sales later in the soccer season. Consequently, they opted to skip this iteration and set their sights on the next installment, presumably slated for fall 2025.

Renouncing the current project, the team is now concentrating on ensuring that the next release meets the high-quality expectations held by fans and developers alike.

Sports Interactive also communicated their apologies for not announcing the game’s cancellation sooner, attributing the delay to legal and financial considerations linked to Sega’s status as a public company. Those who pre-ordered the game will receive full refunds automatically. The company also ruled out updating Football Manager 2024 with the current season’s data, as they believe this would divert too many resources from the development of the next release.

The Football Manager series has maintained a regular release cycle, with new entries typically launching by November’s end since its 2005 edition. Yet, Sports Interactive’s association with soccer management simulation runs much deeper, stretching back to the original Championship Manager in 1992.