A Red Card for Football Manager 25.
Sports Interactive have finally confirmed what fans have suspected for some time, Football Manager 25 is officially cancelled. The latest instalment of the long running management franchise has been shown the Red Card after a series of delays.
This followed an eerie silence from the publisher, who missed their self imposed deadline of the end of January to share more news about the title. That, combined with the generally shambolic handling of FM25 means todays announcement comes as no shock.
There have been renewed calls for a squad update to Football Manager 24 following this announcement. However, Sports Interactive are holding firm that there will not be an update of this nature as things stand.
Football Manager 25 is officially cancelled
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.
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Can you get a refund for Football Manager 25?
Football Manager, which has a hugely dedicated (perhaps even obsessive!) player base, is often a game that is widely pre-ordered. For better or for worse, fans always pick up the latest instalment ahead of time in exchange for things like access to the beta version of the game.
Thankfully, full refunds will be avaliable for those who purchased through an official SEGA-approved retailer.
This cancellation applies to all versions of Football Manager 25 and the game will not be released on any platforms, including mobile.
Renewed calls for FM24 update
Also shared in their blogpost announcing the cancellation is a direct answer to those asking for an update to Football Manager 24. Fans naturally want to experience the coming season, with new player abilities, transfers and other updates in the game. In theory, fans could do this via one of the two official editing software'. However, there is a lot of work needed to achieve this and player ratings are always subjective. Football Manager has a huge and experienced scouting network it uses to create player data in the game.
Despite huge calls for an update to FM24, Sports Interactive are firmly against this idea. They state that:
"As we said in October when the game was delayed, this is a substantial undertaking and would divert critical resources away from the development of the next release which requires our full focus."
While fans will no doubt keep calling for this update, it seems incredibly unlikely that Sports Interactive will change their stance even with Football Manager 25 officially being cancelled.
Stay tuned to esports.gg for more Football Manager news, whenever that may be.
