Football Manager 25 Canceled In a Refreshing Show of Concern For Quality

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica written by Kevin Purdy: There are only two licensed professional sports games included in Wikipedia's "List of video games notable for negative reception." Do not be fooled, however: WWE 2K20 and eFootball 2022 are just the outliers, arriving so poorly crafted as to cause notable outcry and an actual change to development plans. Most licensed professional sports games come out yearly, whether fully baked, notably improved, or not, and fans who have few other options to play with their favorite intellectual property learn to make do with them.

Not so with fans of Football Manager, a series that can be traced back in some form to 1992 that has released a game almost every year, minus one ownership shift in the early 2000s. Sports Interactive, the company behind the franchise, released a statement on Thursday (in British time) that says that "following extensive internal discussions and careful consideration," Football Manager 25 is canceled. The game was "too far away from the standards you deserve," so they are focusing on the 2026 version. [...]

The developer's statement notes that preorder customers are getting refunds. Answering a question that has always been obvious to fans but never publishers, the company notes that, no, Football Manager 2024 will not get an update with the new season's players and data. The company says it is looking to extend the 2024 version's presence on subscription platforms, like Xbox's Game Pass, and will "provide an update on this in due course." Fans eager to build out their dynasty team and end up with Bukayo Saka may be disappointed to miss out this year. But a developer with big ambitions to meaningfully improve and rethink a long-running franchise deserves some consideration amid the consternation.

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[ZERO1ZERO]

Thursday in Britain is different to Thursday in United States, hence the clarification . Oh wait no it isn't.

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[Anonymous Coward]

Aloha! It's Thursday here, too.

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[Rinnon]

We're supposed to be impressed that a company didn't release a half-baked piece of trash like they normally do.

That list is incomplete

[UnknowingFool]

As far as many fans are concerned, EA's Madden football series has been in a terrible state for years with declining quality for years. When it comes to lack of quality, there are videos showing the lack of it in many simple aspects like EA not bothering to update banner images in their own game from "Madden [Previous Year]" to "Madden [Current Year]". That is in addition to EA removing features in previous years to add them back but herald the restoration as brand new features that have never been in the g

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[sarren1901]

Sounds like people will complain about anything and everything. I bought Madden 17, played it for 5 years. Loved it. Bought Madden 23. Been playing it for two years. Still love it and it did have some notable, but minor, improvements over Madden 17. I suspect in another year or so, I'll buy the next Madden and will be perfectly happy with the minor changes and a new roster.

In fact, I'd buy a new Madden every few years just for the new roster and the rest of the game could stay the same. The current renditio