After months of delays and speculation, the news that fans of the gaming series have dreaded, has come to fruition. Developers Sports Interactive have decided to cancel Football Manager 2025, doing so after two delays, announcing that releasing the game now would lead to an inferior product.
The hugely popular game, which was first launched in 2004, has been beset by delays, meaning that the original scheduled release date was missed as was a second. This led to talk of a potential release in March, by which point the European football season would be well and truly into the final straight, making such a release somewhat pointless.
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With FM25 no longer an option, SI (Sports Interactive) will need to make sure that FM26, as and when it comes out, will have to be a shining beacon in order to retain the loyalty of a fanbase that is utterly hooked on the product.
The developers of the hit game released a lengthy blog post to break the news of the cancellation, stating,
“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.”
“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.”
“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,” SI stated.
Football Manager 24 was the most successful iteration of the game to date, with seven million players having been racked up by February 2024. That made it, at the time, one of the five fastest-selling PC games of all time. You can therefore well understand why the creators of the franchise are treading very carefully in terms of the release of the next edition.