The developer of Football Manager 25 has officially cancelled the game after a series of delays that saw it pushed from November last year.
Developer Sports Interactive said the decision to cancel the latest instalment of the game was made after “extensive internal discussion” and “careful consideration” with publisher Sega.
In a statement, Sports Interactive apologised to fans who had pre-ordered the game, promising full refunds.
“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 company said.
“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.”
In recent days, there had been questions raised by the gaming community about the status of Football Manager 25, ahead of its scheduled March launch. Sports Interactive said the delay in communicating the decision to cancel the latest game was due to “stakeholder compliance, including legal and financial regulations”.
“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,” the company said. “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.”
The developer also said it would not update Football Manager 24 with squads from the 2024/2025 season. For those with subscriptions, Sports Interactive said it was in discussions with platform partners and licensers to extend its Football Manager 24 agreements.
The company will now shift its focus to the next release, Football Manager 26.
The decision breaks a multi-decade streak for the management series, which was originally published under the name Championship Manager but was rebranded after a split in 2003 with original publisher Eidos Interactive, which retained the naming rights while Sports Interactive got the game engine and data.
The 2024 instalment of the game was the most played in its history, clocking up more than 7 million players in a few months after its debut.
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