After careful consideration, Sports Interactive has made the difficult decision to further delay the release of Football Manager 25.
After discussions with SEGA, our licensors and our partners, we have determined that it is best to postpone the release date to March 2025. Dates for the individual platforms will be announced as soon as they are set.
In our last developer update in September, we explained that we had to postpone FM25’s originally planned release date to allow more time to deliver the best possible experience in this first game in a new era of Football Manager. However, this additional time was not enough to ensure that the quality and experience met your expectations and our very high standards.
In the last post we explained that this development cycle was a difficult one for the studio. A lot of things progressed more slowly than expected – even though everyone on the team did an incredible job to try to get everything done on time.
The schedule was already tight, and as many of you have rightly noted in your recent comments, rushing development put us at risk of falling short of our usual standards. This put a lot of pressure on everyone at the studio who is passionate about delivering the best game possible.
FM25 is the biggest technical and graphical leap for the series in a generation. We’re at a crucial crossroads in Football Manager’s story and we simply can’t compromise on that by rushing the game out in November.
Of course, this isn’t the situation we wanted to be in seven weeks before the planned release, but in keeping with our studio’s values, we always keep the big picture in mind. And in this case that means we need more time to deliver a game we can all be proud of.
To the many of you who have already pre-ordered the game, we would like to say thank you for your trust and support. However, if you would like a refund given the postponement, please contact the retailer.
As you may have noticed, something missing from our announcement on September 30th was early access information for PC/Mac. We can now confirm that early access will be available before the new release date, and once we know how long the period will be, we will let you know as soon as possible. The new gameplay reveal is also postponed until the end of January 2025.
We know only too well that this is a huge disappointment for you. We are also disappointed and very sorry.
Thanks for reading and for your patience. This means a lot to us as we continue to build the new era of Football Manager.
