After suffering from multiple delays, Football Manager 25 has officially been canceled. British developer Sports Interactive and publisher Sega issued a joint statement on social media addressing the game's cancellation.
The decision to cancel this year's game was made by Sports Interactive "following internal discussion and careful consideration with Sega." The developer will now "shift our focus to the next release."
“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," the statement continued. "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."
Football Manager 25 was originally supposed to be released in early November but was delayed and given a November 26th release date. It was then delayed again and pushed back to March 2025, with Sports Interactive explaining at the time that the first delay had “not been sufficient to ensure the game quality and experience meets your expectations and our very high standards."
Sports Interactive was hoping to make Football Manager 25 the "biggest technical and visual advancement int he series for a generation, laying the building blocks for a new era." One of hte big new features was supposed to be the inclusion of women's football for the first time in the series' history. Sports Interactive was also rebuilding the game with an entirely new graphics system using Unity, which the developer previously said would mark "the starting point for the studio's next 20 years."
Unfortunately, the developer ran into "a variety of challenges" and "haven't achieved what we set out to do in enough areas of the game."
“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," the statement reads.
It continues: “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.”
Sports Interactive did acknowledge that they could've released Football Manager 2025 in its current state and fixed things down the line, but ultimately determined "that's not the right thing to do."
Another delay was ruled out because anything beyond a March release would be too late in the football season. While we unfortunately won't be getting a new Football Manager game this year, it's definitely not the end of the franchise. Rather, it's still the beginning. Sports Interactive will likely take the current structure and bones of what was supposed to be this year's game and continue to build on it for next year.