'We looked stupid' Football Manager director reveals costliness of embarrassing FM25 cancellation

Football Manager 25 was cancelled. The announcement was blunt, honest and clear.

Football Manager is one of the lynchpins of football gaming and the demise of FM25 was understandably tough for developers Sports Interactive.

“Following extensive internal discussion and careful consideration with [FM publisher] SEGA, we have made the difficult decision to cancel Football Manager 25 and shift our focus to the next release,” read the announcement in February.

Back in the game for FM26

The response from fans was disappointed but mixed, and SI’s transparency worked in its favour. FM players were naturally upset at the lack of a refresh last season but appreciative of the fact that the release of a game that wasn’t ready wouldn’t have been to anyone’s benefit.

“The overarching player experience and interface is not where we need it to be… we’re too far away from the standards you deserve,” said the developer.

In an interview with BBC Newsbeat, Sports Interactive boss Miles Jacobson has revealed that the cancellation of Football Manager 25 was an ‘expensive decision’ but, ultimately, the only choice.

“The reason for the cancellation was really simple, which is I wasn’t happy with the quality of the game,” Jacobson said.

“If we had released FM25 in the state that it was in, it wouldn’t have been good value for money and it would have damaged us forever.

The Football Manager head honcho admitted that the Sports Interactive team were too ambitious with their planned changes to the game and that they were probably pushing their luck even without the development problems that cropped up along the way.

Jacobson revealed that the announcement of the initial postponement of FM25 was subject to its own delays that were unconnected to the eventual cancellation of the game. He would have liked to have been able to let fans know sooner.

“We know we looked a bit stupid, it was a little bit embarrassing, but it was also unavoidable,” said Jacobson.

In the end, he sat with the game and it didn’t pass muster. Ultimately, the cancellation of FM25 was purely about standards.

“We brought in a load of consumers to test the game as well,” added Jacobson. “And the average rating that we were getting from the consumers was about seven out of ten. That’s not a Sports Interactive quality level and I personally think that they were being quite generous.”

The studio director said that Sports Interactive tried to be ‘too clever’ and make too many changes, leading to the decision to run damage limitation instead of putting a substandard game into the market.

Behind the scenes, SI turned their attentions to Football Manager 26. The new game is expected in late 2025 complete with the new Unity engine, smoother animations, improved ball physics and sharpened player movement.