For the first time in the history, a Football Manager title is being delayed into the next year.
Football Manager 25 previously announced it will release sometime in November this year. That plan has changed, as the game will now be targeting a release in March 2025.
Football Manager since its inception in 2004 had never missed its October-November release window. That’s a 19-year streak of annual releases by developer Sports Interactive.
The delay decision is due to the complexity of transitioning FM25 to the Unity Engine. A previous dev diary penned by Sports Interactive CEO Miles Jacobson described the process has “been trickier than we originally anticipated.” Though the new delay announcement also said that “everyone in the team working at an incredible pace to try and get everything done.”
FM25 is being touted as “a new era” for Football Manager, and not just on due to the engine switch alone. Improved on-pitch graphics and a whole redesign of the UI is coming alongside the addition of Women’s Football and the Premier League license.
And it’s expected FM25 to shed some features off, the mentioned dev diary revealed that players can’t manage national teams (though they will be simulated). FM25 Mobile is excluded, as that game is still running on the existing game engine, it isn’t changing to Unity.
Football Manager 25, Football Manager Console 25, Football Manager Touch 25 and Football Manager 25 Mobile has no specific release date after this delay. But expect FM 25 to arrive first sometime in March 2025, with the rest to follow soon after.