Why was Football Manager 25 canceled? Everything we know about scrapped game
Sports InteractiveFootball Manager 25 was scheduled to release in March 2025 – after an initial delay from November – however the developers dropped a shocking announcement just a month out that the game would no longer be releasing and had been canceled. Here’s why.
Football Manager is the football fan’s perfect escape into the world of football management. Taking your non-league team through the divisions and into the Champions League is a feeling that not many video games could replicate.
It’s easy to sink hundreds of hours into a save no matter how casually you play, and fans were excited to dive in once more for FM25. Unfortunately, this will no longer be possible.
Devs reveal Football Manager 25 has been scrapped
On February 6, 2025, developer Sports Interactive released a blog post confirming that FM 25 would no longer be released at all.
“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 continued: “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.”
For those who have pre-ordered the game, fear not, as devs have assured you’ll be issued a full refund in the coming weeks.
When was FM25 supposed to release?
Football Manager 25 was penned for release in March 2025. Originally, the game was supposed to arrive in early November as usual with this annualized series, before devs Sports Interactive announced a slight delay to November 26.
Eventually, of course, development problems meant they had to delay it until March – and now it’s out of the pipeline completely.
The reason for the game being canceled so close to its intended release was due to “stakeholder compliance, including legal and financial regulations.”
Platforms
Football Manager 25 was set to release on PlayStation 5, Xbox One Xbox Series X|S, PC/Mac, Mobile (through Netflix), and Nintendo Switch with FM Touch.
Xbox Game Pass users would have also been able to get FM25 from Day One through the service.
New & removed features
One of the biggest new additions that was scheduled to arrive in FM25 was the inclusion of women’s football.
The game was also set to introduce a whole new UI given the switch to the Unity engine, and for the first time in years, the Inbox would not be the ‘homepage’ for players, signifying a huge change as players have to “relearn” how to navigate the game.
Sports InteractiveHowever, this appeared to be the biggest factor in canceling the title. The devs further outlined in the announcement post how, despite hitting their targets for “many areas of the game, the overarching player experience and interface is not where we need it to be.”
“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 trailer
The first FM25 trailer, ‘The New Era’, launched on September 30. It didn’t give a proper insight into gameplay or what exactly to expect and unfortunately, fans will never get to see the game come to life as expected.