Sports Interactive has announced that Football Manager 25's release has been delayed until March 2025.
This year's entry had been pitched as the first in a "new era" for the long-running series, and was planned for a November 26 release. However, the developer released a statement today apologising to fans.
"Timelines were already tight and, as rightly pointed out by many of your recent comments, we were simply rushing too much and in danger of compromising our usual standards," Sports Interactive said.
"This has put an enormous amount of pressure on everyone working across the studio, who are all passionately committed to delivering the best game possible.
"FM25 is the biggest technical and visual advancement in the series for a generation. We simply cannot compromise the delivery of this crucial juncture in Football Manager’s history by rushing to release it in November.
"Of course, this is not where any of us expected to be seven weeks out from our release but, in the spirit of our studio values, we always consider the bigger picture – and the bigger picture here is that we need this additional time to deliver a game that we can all be proud of."
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The statement added that fans can now expect a gameplay reveal at "the end of January 2025".
Original story – September 30, 2024:
Football Manager 25's release date has been revealed.
This year's entry in the popular football management simulation series represents a major revamp, and will be available on PC, Mac, PS5, Xbox, and Game Pass from Tuesday, November 26.
The mobile version of Football Manager 25 will also launch on the same date as a Netflix exclusive.
The Nintendo Switch version, Football Manager 25 Touch, is scheduled for a December 3 release.
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Football Manager is making a host of changes for this year, including the inclusion of women's football and a partnership with the Premier League.
The newest entry also marks a move to the Unity engine as well as a new user interface and upgraded visuals.
"FM25 is just the starting point for the studio’s next 20, 30 years," said Sports Interactive studio director Miles Jacobson. "It’s also the point where the world gets to see two of our multi-year projects come to fruition: the switch to the Unity engine and the introduction of Women’s Football.
"It gives us a real sense of achievement to begin sharing our hard work with you, and we're really looking forward to showing you more of the game in the weeks before the game’s release.”
In the coming weeks, Sports Interactive will go into detail about the changes made to the interface, tactics, and match experience plus provide a deep dive into the addition of women's football.
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As a result of the revamp, a number of features from previous years have not made the cut including touchline shouts and the create-a-club and versus modes.
International management will also not be playable (except for in the mobile version), but Sports Interactive promises it will return for next year's entry as part of the base game in a "much more feature-rich way".
"We’ve looked really hard at international management in FM and determined that what we were planning to deliver wouldn’t reach our initial quality threshold," Jacobson said in a blog earlier this month.
"Only 5.6% of all FM24 PC saves have used the mode, which we feel validates our view that we need to do much, much better with the experience. That number is even smaller on Console."
Football Manager 25 launches on November 26 on PC, Mac, PS5, and Xbox.
