Football Manager 25 was expected to be a milestone in the long-running franchise, with fans eagerly anticipating its release in March 2025.
However, after two prior delays, Sports Interactive announced that the game had been cancelled entirely, marking a significant disappointment for players worldwide. So, what went wrong? Let’s explore the reasons behind this decision.
Record Popularity and High Expectations
The Football Manager series has consistently grown in popularity, with FM24 attracting a record 14 million players across desktop and mobile versions. Even real-life footballers like Antoine Griezmann, Ousmane Dembélé, and César Azpilicueta are known to be avid fans of the game. With such a massive player base, expectations for FM25 were higher than ever.
Sports Interactive had promised that FM25 would be the biggest technical and visual upgrade in the series’ history. Several key innovations contributed to the excitement:
- Official Premier League Licensing
- Inclusion of Women’s Football for the First Time
- A Brand-New Game Engine
Each of these features posed significant challenges, ultimately leading to the game’s cancellation.
Premier League Licensing: A Complex Integration
For the first time in the franchise’s history, Sports Interactive secured an official partnership with the Premier League. This meant the inclusion of official logos, kits, and player photos, adding authenticity to the game. However, integrating this content required manual development work, as each feature had to be carefully added by developers.
Women’s Football: A Massive Undertaking
Another groundbreaking feature was the long-awaited inclusion of women’s football. Since the game’s inception as Championship Manager in 1992, Football Manager had only featured men’s football. Adding women’s football wasn’t as simple as inserting names into a database.
- Data Collection: Every player in FM is meticulously researched, with over 300 data fields covering attributes such as speed, technical ability, and tactical awareness. To ensure accuracy, Sports Interactive had to build a dedicated scouting network for women’s football, much like they did in the early ’90s for men’s football.
- Motion Capture: To make the women’s game feel realistic, the studio enlisted footballers Molly and Rosie Kmita and goalkeeper Sophie Whitehouse to film animations. Over 7,000 motion capture sequences were planned for inclusion.
- Language Adjustments: The game’s massive script—over 4 million words and phrases—had to be reviewed to ensure gender-appropriate dialogue.
This painstaking process required years of development time and contributed significantly to the game’s delay.
A New Game Engine: The Biggest Challenge of All
One of the most anticipated changes in FM25 was a brand-new game engine. Since 2004, Football Manager had used an in-house engine, which, while functional, felt outdated compared to modern gaming standards.
To modernize the experience, Sports Interactive switched to the Unity engine, known for powering games like Fall Guys and Cities: Skylines. While Unity provided more advanced graphics and performance capabilities, the transition was anything but simple:
- Massive Code Overhaul: There was no simple way to transfer existing FM code to Unity. Developers had to rebuild large portions of the game from scratch.
- File Format and Design Differences: Everything from art assets to user interface elements had to be adjusted to fit the new engine’s requirements.
- Underestimating the Workload: Many developers have noted that transitioning to a new game engine is far more complex than anticipated, requiring significant time and resources.
Repeated Delays and Ultimate Cancellation
Initially, FM25 was scheduled for release in November 2024, but as development challenges mounted, Sports Interactive delayed the game twice, first to late November 2024 and then to March 2025. Even then, issues persisted.
The warning signs became apparent when the company failed to release promised gameplay footage by February 2025. Finally, on February 7, 2025, Sports Interactive confirmed that Football Manager 25 would not be released at all.
The cancellation resulted in millions of pounds in unrealized revenue, and Sega, the game’s publisher, saw its stock price drop by 3.89% following the announcement.
Lessons from the Past
This isn’t the first time Sports Interactive has faced major delays. Back in 2002, Championship Manager 4 was postponed from its original release date. That game introduced the first-ever 2D match engine, and while it became the UK’s fastest-selling PC game at the time, it launched with numerous bugs and errors.
Perhaps learning from that experience, Sports Interactive chose to avoid releasing a game that wasn’t fully ready, opting instead to focus on Football Manager 26.
Looking Ahead to FM26
With FM25 officially cancelled, attention now turns to Football Manager 26. Fans will be hoping that the extra development time will allow Sports Interactive to perfect the new game engine, integrate women’s football successfully, and refine the Premier League licensing content.
Despite the setback, the Football Manager franchise remains one of the most iconic in gaming history. If FM26 can deliver on the promises that FM25 couldn’t, the series may emerge even stronger in the long run.
Be sure not to miss out on the latest news about Premier League
Download our brand new App and follow your favorite players, clubs, and much more
