Football Manager 25 has been cancelled a month before release

In an ideal world, players would have been able to play Football Manager 25 on all available platforms in March 2025.

However, you won’t be able to play the game in this reality, as the project has officially been canceled. Developers Sports Interactive announced the unfortunate decision earlier today, February 6, and the much-delayed title has finally been binned.

Football Manager 25, or FM 25 in short, was expected to be the series’s biggest technical and visual advancement, as it would have been based on the Unity engine. Unfortunately, the massive shift seems to have been too big a challenge for the developers to conquer.

“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.”

It appears that despite two previous delays, Sports Interactive has been unable to develop a product that will satisfy the players in every area possible.

“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.”

The developers seem to have been unwilling to launch Football Manager 25 in a state which would have compromised their reputation in the community.

“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.”

Thankfully, there will be a Football Manager 26 releasing at some point in the future. For the time being, players will have to contend themselves with Football Manager 24, albeit without any more updates or new content.

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