Sega Cancels Football Manager 25 - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 07 February 2025 / 2,649 Views
Publisher SEGA and developer Sports Interactive have announced Football Manager 25 has been cancelled as it focuses on the next entry in the series.
Read the announcement post below:
A Message from Sports Interactive, An Update on Football Manager 25
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. Please see the FAQs below on obtaining your refund.
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.
Sports Interactive
FAQs
Does this affect all platforms and versions of Football Manager 25?
Yes, all versions are cancelled and FM25 will not be released on any platforms.
I pre-ordered the game on PC / Mac how do I obtain my refund?
Pre-Purchase orders for Football Manager 25 will automatically be refunded in full if purchased through an official SEGA-approved retailer. Retailers will process refunds in due course, for any enquiries please contact your point of purchase.
Why didn’t you cancel FM25 earlier when you opted to delay to March?
At the time of the decision, based on the data available, it was our strong belief that we could reach our quality target level and deliver a game our players would be happy with, despite the delay. The challenges encountered beyond this point meant we were unable to achieve that.
An FM25 update was promised in January. Why the delay in sharing this information?
As stated above, stakeholder compliance impacted the sharing of information until now which relates to SEGA Sammy Holdings being a publicly traded company.
Will there be an FM24 update with 2024/25 season data?
No. 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.
Will FM24 remain playable on subscription platforms?
We are currently in discussions with our various platform partners and licensors and hope to extend our FM24 agreements. We will provide an update on this in due course.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Bluesky.
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I appreciate developers who care about quality. Bold move for yearly game series, though.
Delaying til March was silly anyway, interest has died down in the season by then. If they are working on a new Engined game, then try to actually launch 26 at the start of the 25-26 season.
Glad they decided to do this. Hopefully this leads to them releasing FM26 earlier than they usually do, I feel like these games always come out a bit too late into the season.
I was a player of this series many years ago.
This is a football manager, not a FIFA, hard to understand what is happening there: If they had problems with the new 3D environment, they simply had to delay it for the next coming years, and just update the database and the actual season leagues/competitions. How the hell they lose a full season of a manager... because a new 3D engine?
Also, for what I seems, they already informed months ago the international football was scrapped in this new release, cause time development constraints. That is by far worse than not havind a fucking "good" 3D simulator in this kind of games. I mean, it can be nice to have it... but it is really not the point: I remember to have been played many matches in 2D simulation (basically a very BARE simulation, using just color giant dots as players) because it was a lot easier to saw tactical problems. And that was the point in a game called Football Manager.
The fact they already decided to scrap the international football in this release... so you cannot play in continental nation cups, world cups, olympic 23U competitions... is a mess. And can be, for sure, a deal breaker for many players of this genre.
no GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAL
