Football Manager 25 has been cancelled outright, just weeks ahead of its planned launch. The title had been delayed multiple times prior to this decision, but developer Sports Interactive has now decided to call time on the project, as it was unhappy with the state of the game, and any further delays would place its launch too late into the current football season.
Instead of releasing the game in a buggy state and fixing it with updates, the team has pulled Football Manager 25, and will instead begin work on the next release in the franchise.
Given the game was set to release in March 2025, it’s a fairly sudden and unexpected announcement. Per Sports Interactive, which has apologised for the announcement’s timing, this was down to legal obligations. It couldn’t announce the changes publicly until it had fulfilled stakeholder compliance requirements, and its legal and financial obligations. That includes initiating the refund process for those who preordered the title.
There will inevitably be major disappointment around this news, as Football Manager 25 had promised to be a significant overhaul for franchise fans, with new features designed to streamline the game’s management systems and introduce an array of technical and visual advancements, “laying the building blocks for a new era.”
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While Sports Interactive was confidence in many of these aspects, not all of them were complete enough to justify releasing the game in its existing state. In fact, some of the new features are seemingly what contributed to the game’s cancellation.
“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,” Sports Interactive said.
“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.”
As noted by Sports Interactive, the team could have pressed on to release the game, and “fixed things down the line” but the team agreed it wasn’t “the right thing to do.” Instead, it will now focus on ensuring the next franchise release achieves its goals, and the quality level expected.
Sports Interactive has promised updates along the way, to ensure players are in the loop as work continues on the next Football Manager.
