For the first time in 20 years, Football Manager is missing its fall release date - the devs 'simply cannot compromise' by 'rushing to release it in November'

Football Manager 2025, the annual soccer management sim, has been delayed from November 2024 to March 2025 due to the need for more time to meet the developer's high standards. The game is said to be the biggest technical and visual advancement in the series for a generation, prompting the delay despite being just seven weeks before its original release date.

For the last two decades, Football Manager has always come out in time for October or November. It's one of the year's most reliable sights in league with Call of Duty or Christmas trees, but someone better keep an eye on Santa because Football Manager 2025 has been delayed to next year.

Developer Sports Interactive and publisher Sega announced the series' first delay in 20 years via a blog post, revealing that Football Manager 2025's November release date had been pushed until next March with "specific platform release dates" still to come. 

The annual sports series had a minor delay earlier in the year, but the studio explained that "this additional time has not been sufficient to ensure the game quality and experience meets your expectations and our very high standards." Different areas of production had apparently "been moving slower than we had predicted - despite everyone in the team working at an incredible pace to try and get everything done."

Sports Interactive called Football Manager 2025 "the biggest technical and visual advancement in the series for a generation" and a "critical juncture" in the series' history. Delaying a major release just seven weeks before its release, and 10 days after opening pre-orders, is definitely odd timing, but the studio notes it didn't want to risk "compromising our usual standards" for what it deems is a crucial moment.

"We can confirm Advanced Access will be available ahead of the new release date and, when we are confident on how long that period will be, we will update you at the first opportunity. The new gameplay reveal will also now move to the end of January 2025," the announcement notes.

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