At the end of January, Sports Interactive wanted to make the gameplay reveal for the already postponed Football Manager 2025. At the beginning of February, nothing had happened yet – faith in the community is waning.
“I’m always one of the optimists when it comes to Football Manager. Especially because the developers have always been very open in their communication,” Tery Whenett tells eSport. However, the content creator and head of FM.Zweierkette is following the growing information gap around FM25 with a queasy feeling: “The fact that they now can’t meet their own deadline and so nothing is coming at all makes me want to switch to the pessimists camp.”
“This points to bigger problems”
Last October, developer Sports Interactive announced that Football Manager 2025 would no longer be released in 2024 as usual. Instead, the target date has since been set for March 2025 – after the title had already been delayed by weeks. The gameplay reveal was scheduled for the end of January. A deadline that has now passed without any hints or explanations.
“This indicates major problems – either with the development status or with legal issues,” says Whenett. The former theory is of course linked to the switch to the Unity engine, which is supposed to herald a new FM era, but also became the main reason for the delayed release. Whenett “is prepared for the fact that we will not get a new FM25 in March”.
Vice World Champion sees missed opportunity
“Whether that would mean another delay into May or into November, so that we would be back on the regular cycle, remains to be seen,” says Whenett. However, he is now “already very pessimistic that the schedule that was communicated in October will continue to hold.”
The developer has not yet responded to a corresponding request from eSport an Sports Interactive. The social media accounts for Football Manager have been silent for months. The developer’s lack of willingness to communicate is probably angering fans more than further bad news about the release date would.
Sven Goly also sees a missed opportunity in the conversation with eSport. “The community understands the risk that Sports Interactive is taking with the new version,” says the FM vice world champion. ‘With the right tone and enough transparency, you could take the fans with you on the journey and maintain a positive mood despite setbacks. I hope Sports Interactive takes this to heart and seizes opportunities to build a closer bond with the community in the future.’
Overshadowed: “Please talk to us”
Content creator ‘Jonukas’ summarizes the opinion of many FM fans on X: “I don’t have a problem with the game being postponed if it’s not ready for release. As far as I’m concerned, FM25 can be canceled altogether – that’s fine. But please talk to us.” Without further information, his verdict is devastating for the time being: ‘You can’t make a game release any worse than that.’
