This is extremely sad for football fans! Football Manager 25 was set to release in March 2025, but now it is canceled! The developer, Sports Interactive, has confirmed that the game won’t be released despite the significant effort put into it. The project has been completely scrapped and the team has shifted the focus to the next installment, Football Manager 26. Yes, this means the franchise will skip one game and there is no hope for Football Manager 25 to return.
About Football Manager 25
After the massive success of Football Manager 24, fans were highly anticipating the next installment. After being delayed 2 times, it was finally set to drop in March 2025. But now the game has been canceled all of a sudden, leaving fans high and dry. Football Manager 25 was considered a revolution in the game series, laying the building blocks for a new era. But sadly, it is not happening anymore.
“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,” they said.
Why is Football Manager 25 Canceled?
Football Manager 25 is canceled for a number of reasons. They said there were “a variety of challenges that we’ve been open about to date, and many more unforeseen”. To meet the required standards, they would need a lot more time, and that wasn’t acceptable by the game’s deadline. “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.”
- Missed development milestones
- Performance issues with the new Unity engine
- Failure to meet internal quality standards
- UI quality wasn’t up to the mark
- Unpolished AI behavior
What Happens to Football Manager 25 Pre-Order?
If you pre-ordered Football Manager 25, you will receive a refund for that. This has been confirmed by the developers of Football Manager 25. They have apologized to fans for canceling the game and disappointing them. “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,” said Sports Interactive.
Which is the Next Game in the Football Manager series?
Sports Interactive has officially begun development on Football Manager 2026. Skipping FM 25 was a tough call, but the team did what was necessary. Now, they’re focused on making FM 26 the pinnacle of the series, applying everything they’ve learned along the way. They will make it a great release and make sure it drops at the right time, meeting quality standards and deadlines.
Summary
This is sad for fans of the Football Manager series, especially for the ones who played Football Manager 24 and were highly anticipating the next instalment. Some gamers are also doubting that financial pressures or decisions from higher-ups played a role in skipping FM 25. The announcement’s timing, close to SEGA’s financial reports, has only added to the speculation. Now all we can do is wait for FM 26 to release and that too on time. Hope it will be a banger!
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