Good day everyone,
I hope you are all having a good day, welcome to CryptoGod-1's blog on all things gaming and literature. In this post I will be looking at the recent news of the beloved video game 'Football Manager' cancelling their 2025 version having previously delayed the release.
Football Manager 25 Cancelled
The company behind the Football Manager series, Sports Interactive, have announced in a blog post their regret that after an extensive internal discussion and careful consideration along with parent company SEGA they have decided to cancel Football Manager 25 and shift their focus onto Football Manager 26. It will be cancelled across all platforms following the difficult development and will mark the first time the long-running football management series has skipped a year entirely since it began in 2004.
The blog post read as follows:
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
The team have finally come out to announce the game is cancelled after FM 25 had been billed as the biggest leap forward for the series in a generation. The game is being made with the Unity game engine and problems have arose with the player experience and interface in particular. The development team admitted they want to deliver the best value for money for fans of the series, however many questions will need to be asked of a company which began taking pre orders for this game last October and have twice delayed its release.
Many in the space have been fearful over the past week as it had previously been announced that new details for the game would be available by the end of January 2025. Instead the disappointment has arrived a week into February as fans have been left in the dark. Many who are Football Manager 2024 players via subscription platforms will now be waiting to find out if various platform partners and licensors will extend their agreements. Time will tell but certainly there are a lot of disappointed fans out there, and now the expectations for Football Manager 2026 will be even higher. Hopefully they can deliver on that one.
Below I have linked in some of the reactions from the various YouTube football manager channels, and their opinions on this farce by Sports Interactive and SEGA.
Have a great day.
Peace. CryptoGod-1.
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