“We understand this will be a significant letdown”
Regrettably, we must withdraw a title from our extensive Xbox Game Pass in 2025 list today, as it has been revealed by Sports Interactive that Football Manager 25 will not be launching at all – it has been completely cancelled.
The developer had been aiming for FM25 to represent a significant revamp for the franchise, transitioning to the Unity Engine for the first time and boasting the “largest technical and visual upgrade for the series in a generation”. However, it has encountered numerous obstacles since then, rendering it unfit for release.
“Due to a variety of hurdles we’ve been transparent about thus far, and many additional unexpected ones, we currently have not accomplished what we intended in several aspects of the game, despite the incredible efforts from our team. Every decision to postpone the release was made with the intention of bringing the game closer to the desired level, but as we neared critical milestones at the start of the year, it became abundantly clear that we would not meet the required standards, even with the adjusted timeline.”
“We could have continued on, launched FM25 in its current condition, and addressed issues afterwards – but that’s not the right course of action. We were also reluctant to extend beyond a March release as it would be too late in the football season to expect players to purchase another game later in the year.”
Football Manager 25 had already been postponed from its original release in November 2024, with the team pushing that deadline to March 2025 prior to today’s cancellation. Now, they will be focusing on releasing FM26 this November instead.
As it stands, Football Manager 2024 is already part of Xbox Game Pass, and Sports Interactive has stated that they are in talks with “various platform partners” to seek an extension of their agreements for it. In other words, we are hopeful that FM24 will remain on the service until the next installment arrives at the end of the year.
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