We've unfortunately got a title to remove from our big Xbox Game Pass in 2025 list today, as it's been announced by Sports Interactive that Football Manager 25 won't be releasing in any fashion - it's been totally cancelled.
The developer had been planning for FM25 to mark a massive overhaul for the franchise, with the game switching to the Unity Engine for the first time and introducing the "biggest technical and visual advancement for the series in a generation". However, it's run into multiple roadblocks since then, and is not in a fit state to release.
"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."
"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."
Football Manager 25 had already been delayed from its planned launch in November 2024, with the team pushing that window to March 2025 before today's cancellation. Now, they'll be focusing on releasing FM26 this November instead.
Of course, Football Manager 2024 is already part of Xbox Game Pass as things stand, and Sports Interactive says it's in discussions with "various platform partners" to try and extend their agreements for it. In other words, we're hoping FM24 will remain on the service until the next game arrives at the end of the year.
Sad to see this? Let us know your thoughts down in the comments section below.
[source footballmanager.com]
Comments 9
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.
Huge respect for them for doing this. The amount of trust they'd have lost and drops in returning players for later in the year would have hit hard. Good for them!
Tbh this football season has been absolutely atrocious not deserving of a game in my opinion!!
Probably the best thing to do as March would have already been way to late in the season. Hopefully the next game will come to Gamepass.
@Ricky-Spanish as a Man Utd fan, I totally agree. 😂
@THE_VITTLER I'm in the exact same boat please God 🙏 tonight we get a result!
Pity as this football season has been one of the best ever and still has chance to get better.
Hopefully they do agree to keep FM24 on game pass longer so I can play it some more 😏
Definitely the right thing to do and I can absolutely understand the reasons behind this decision. Wouldn’t make any sense to bring out Football Manager 2025 now at this point in the season do fair play to them for making what was no doubt hard decision.
Imo a really good decision this. Too many Devs under pressure from publisher's to hit deadlines send releases out in unfinished states.
Credit to them for making what after all the graft was still a hard decision to make. Props to Sega too for supporting that.
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