With the football season more than halfway done in the major leagues around the world, it means fans have had the opportunity to hone their armchair manager skills either in fantasy leagues, or via the means of video games. While EA Sports FC offers a more arcadey experience, the hardcore aspiring managers can always turn to Sports Interactive‘s Football Manager series for their fix. Yet, the annualised franchise has hit a snag, as the team has announced the cancellation of Football Manager 25.
Development of games is never easy, and after discussion between the team and SEGA, it has been decided that the sports sim will be skipping this year entirely and focusing on the next release. The unfortunate news comes via the official blog:
“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,” the post explained.
“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.”
With SEGA sharing its latest financial results, the costs involved in the development and the quality eventually gave way to this significant decision. Thankfully, the cancellation will not impact the staff at the studio.
For players, Sports Interactive shared that there will not be an update for Football Manager 24 with data for the current 24/25 season as it “would divert critical resources away from the development of the next release which requires our full focus.” Pre-orders for Football Manager 25 will be refunded as well.
