In an unprecedented move, the popular soccer management simulation, Football Manager, is taking a hiatus for the first time in its two-decade-long journey. Football Manager 25, which had already faced two delays, is no longer set to launch in March 2025 as was previously planned.
In an official announcement, both developer Sports Interactive and publisher Sega revealed their decision to refocus on the upcoming installment. They realized FM25 wouldn’t be able to meet their quality benchmarks without further postponement, which they decided against.
The game was anticipated to be a game-changer, promising to bring the most significant technical and visual overhaul the series had seen in years. Sports Interactive had teased fans with talks of new animations, an improved user interface, and a revamped match day experience, alongside an exciting introduction: the inclusion of women’s soccer.
However, it seems Sports Interactive grappled with the ambitious scale of these changes. They had already pushed the game past its usual fall release to March, bypassing the central football season. The absence of a gameplay reveal and a missed development update in January didn’t help morale either.
In their statement, Sports Interactive expressed: “We’ve been quite transparent about various challenges we’ve encountered, both expected and unforeseen. Despite our team’s stellar efforts, we found ourselves falling short in key areas of the game. Each delay aimed at refining the game closer to our standards, but by the year’s end, it was evident we wouldn’t hit the mark within the adjusted timeline.”
The studio acknowledged that releasing a subpar version and subsequent patching wasn’t the right path forward. Additionally, they dismissed the notion of further delaying the game as it would have been too late in the sporting calendar to expect fans to purchase another version later in the year. Thus, they’ve opted to skip this entry and direct all energy towards the next version, likely set for a fall 2025 release.
Sports Interactive emphasized, “Following the cancellation, our entire focus now is on making sure our next release meets our quality expectations.”
They also expressed regret over the delay in communicating the game’s cancellation, attributing it to legal and financial regulations tied to Sega, being a publicly traded company. Moreover, they reassured fans that all pre-orders would be fully refunded and confirmed that updating Football Manager 2024 with current season data wasn’t feasible, as it would divert resources from the next game development.
Ever since the launch of Football Manager 2005 in 2004, the franchise had adhered to a strictly annual release schedule. Sports Interactive’s journey in crafting soccer management games stretches back even further to 1992’s Championship Manager.
