Football Manager 2025

[lfu]

15 minutes ago, Dan LCFC said:

Delayed until March 2025!!!

 

That's a proper fumble. The season bloody finishes in May.

Got to wonder at this point if it's worth just releasing a data update as "FM25" next month and postponing the actual game until FM26 

[pmcla26]

11 minutes ago, lfu said:

Got to wonder at this point if it's worth just releasing a data update as "FM25" next month and postponing the actual game until FM26 

Definitely the best move. 

 

Maybe add in the Premier League license, too (if possible). 

[Dan]

29 minutes ago, lfu said:

Got to wonder at this point if it's worth just releasing a data update as "FM25" next month and postponing the actual game until FM26 

Completely agree. They have really fumbled this haven't they. I think given it's a season on season thing they release it quite late anyway in November. March almost defeats the point for me.

 

They should do what you've said. I'd take that to be honest. I've never really been 'that' fussed about new versions even though I'll just buy them anyway.

[dmayne7]

26 minutes ago, lfu said:

Got to wonder at this point if it's worth just releasing a data update as "FM25" next month and postponing the actual game until FM26 

Definitely should do this.

 

I'm not fussed by the delay (and always a good thing to remove the temptation of playing 'life destruction simulator' ) but the fact they haven't even shown anything of the actual game, even a couple of mins at this point is worrying and piss poor in terms of transparency. Even shifting the release date by so much for an annual release, just a few weeks after a delay, is a real concern. With the way gamers are these days, there's serious potential for irreparable damage to the franchise the way this is going.

[filbertway]

If it is March then delay it till September and have the new cycle running from September to September. November was quite late as it is, March is just pointless

 

[sharpylcfc]

I think they should bring out a data update for FM24 like said above. As much as it doesn't look great being pushed back to March next year at least they've held up their hands and said we need more time to work on it and make the best game they can. Unlike some other developers who release games not ready or recycling old features as new features and a squad update as a new game looking at you EA 

 

SI could also just release a half finished game knowing people would just buy it anyway because they're really the only ones releasing management games now, years ago if only for a little while they had Championship Manager and LMA Manager for competition. 

[Daggers]

 

[Dan]

 

 

[The Doctor]

honestly should have just done this back in November rather than add the "oh it'll come out in march" stuff

[Finnegan]

4 hours ago, The Doctor said:

honestly should have just done this back in November rather than add the "oh it'll come out in march" stuff

 

Even better, they should have taken two full years to develop 26. This was always going to be ambitious, they wanted to reinvent the game from the ground up. Doing it in a one year game cycle was dumb. 

 

Probably not really their fault, SEGA need to take a big share of the blame. 

 

They could have sold a 24/25 season DLC for 24 with an official database update and updates to the in-built graphics which, let's be honest, a couple of interns could have put together and they'd have made a bit of money and the community wout forgive it. 

 

Now they're substantially setting back development of their road map and they're still going to be playing catch up. 

 

[shen]

52 minutes ago, Finnegan said:

 

Even better, they should have taken two full years to develop 26. This was always going to be ambitious, they wanted to reinvent the game from the ground up. Doing it in a one year game cycle was dumb. 

 

Probably not really their fault, SEGA need to take a big share of the blame. 

 

They could have sold a 24/25 season DLC for 24 with an official database update and updates to the in-built graphics which, let's be honest, a couple of interns could have put together and they'd have made a bit of money and the community wout forgive it. 

 

Now they're substantially setting back development of their road map and they're still going to be playing catch up. 

 

But haven't they been developing it as a separate project for years? It feels inexcusable that the UI is one of the two quoted reasons wht it won't be ready. Surely they had ideas and concepts ready early in development.

 

Either way, they absolutely should have given FM24 some more love and an update once they saw they couldn't get 25 done on time. 

[Finnegan]

1 minute ago, shen said:

haven't they been developing it as a separate project for years?

 

They're not exactly a large studio though are they, it's all resources. A huge chunk of their devs are going to constantly be shackled to getting the next game in the cycle ready which is why there's never much significant change between versions. 

 

We don't really know how many devs have been doing how much work on the side for the last couple of years. Or what specifically they were working in. 

 

[Stadt]

This could have been turned into a big opportunity the game needed, instead they've fumbled it in the worst way - predictably too.

[AKCJ]

Better they did that than release a game with a million bugs.

 

But you know for a fact that that is exactly what will happen with FM26.

[RoboFox]

What a mess.

 

I suppose there's a bit of credit for just holding their hands up here and saying "it's not ready", clearly spread themselves far too thinly.

 

They've been relying on the same tired and outdated match engine for 15+ years. Just like FIFA - for one of the biggest-selling game series ever - so many of the editions have been reskins and roster updates with little meaningful feature development, and they expect people to pay full price when DLCs would be sufficient. Companies like EA and SI are FAR too comfortable with their monopolies, and it shows with the shit they churn out every year. 

 

Taking a couple of years out to ACTUALLY do some game development is long overdue I'm afraid.

 

Edited 7 February by RoboFox

[shen]

8 minutes ago, RoboFox said:

What a mess.

 

I suppose there's a bit of credit for just holding their hands up here and saying "it's not ready", clearly spread themselves far too thinly.

 

They've been relying on the same tired and outdated match engine for 15+ years. Just like FIFA - for one of the biggest-selling game series ever - so many of the editions have been reskins and roster updates with little meaningful feature development, and they expect people to pay full price when DLCs would be sufficient. Companies like EA and SI are FAR too comfortable with their monopolies, and it shows with the shit they churn out every year. 

 

Taking a couple of years out to ACTUALLY do some game development is long overdue I'm afraid.

 

But it's also unrealistic to expend brand new games year on year. Development cycles have changed considerably and games are more and more live services.

[RoboFox]

10 minutes ago, shen said:

But it's also unrealistic to expend brand new games year on year. Development cycles have changed considerably and games are more and more live services.

Nobody expects brand new games every year. They also don't expect basically the same game with arbitrary feature updates, full price, every year for 10-odd years (more like 15 in FM's case) which is essentially what consumers have got from EA and SI. 

 

Edited 7 February by RoboFox

[RoboFox]

Miles' inbox leaked: 

 

[The Doctor]

1 hour ago, Finnegan said:

 

Even better, they should have taken two full years to develop 26. This was always going to be ambitious, they wanted to reinvent the game from the ground up. Doing it in a one year game cycle was dumb. 

 

Probably not really their fault, SEGA need to take a big share of the blame. 

 

They could have sold a 24/25 season DLC for 24 with an official database update and updates to the in-built graphics which, let's be honest, a couple of interns could have put together and they'd have made a bit of money and the community wout forgive it. 

 

Now they're substantially setting back development of their road map and they're still going to be playing catch up. 

 

I mean the way they've talked about it, this has been in the pipeline for a couple of years with the switch to unity but yea, the DLC route would have been better, I struggle to believe that come august last year say, they wouldn't know whether the game was nearly at QA testing and releasable this season or not

[MPH]

The full statement:

 

 

[AjcW]

Thanfully having one of my most enjoyable FM24 saves at present  

 

As others have said, skipping a year would have probably been really well received comms wise, could have even sold a patch for like £10 or something and people would have lapt it up/they'd have kept some income coming in.

 

It's not really surprising, Miles and his cronies are about as out of touch with reality as the people running LCFC  

[Daggers]

[The Doctor]

20 hours ago, Daggers said:

[Leicester_Loyal]

I’ve read that they’re contracted to do a game every year and not allowed to just do DLC update for the 24 version. Not sure if that’ll change now 25 isn’t happening. 
 

At least 26 should be a decent jump, don’t think I’ve played since 23. 

[filbertway]

Should have had a break this year anyway, it wasa great opportunity to get the release cycle lined up so they're not doing releases in November as well.