Disaster.

[@christiansmith1389]

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why I do not tolerate any criticism towards Zealand for diversifying his content.

[@wraithyoshidj6702]

Nobody cares what u feel you tolerate or not. Nobody on earth is ruled by you.

[@yutanarkavich]

but as seen in many other examples in other streamers, it never works. People watch certain people only for certain titles. One recent example is Raxx from Diablo. He tried the same. Didn't work. Now he is back in Diablo.

[@ChrisA2]

Exactly, this reaffirms it

[@Beyondultragaming]

As they say, "Don't have your eggs in one basket".

[@arturillosmeriglia8029]

@@yutanarkavich many a true nerd got famous as a Fallout guy and nowadays he plays literally anything from CK3 to Elden Ring to horny visual novels

[@arw8719]

they should put out a free update for fm24 adding all transfers for 24/25 season at the very least

[@isaacng315]

Totally agree especially for iOS Touch players, since we pay a monthly subscription to Apple Arcade.

[@sean5409]

That patch is out already

[@pan-africanmovement938]

@@sean5409 Out already! where?

[@timmiaushamburg]

hell no dude. buy their shitty as console dumbed down cancer called fm25 in march 2025 for the incredible price of only 70 bucks. fuck them

[@pbt1900]

@@sean5409 how do you get it

[@kyufuyuvbvbllymjnncuhuhbuh7538]

Can't believe you're copying Zealandism who made a similar video just 11 hours ago. Honestly disguting.

[@theqaz1828]

@@kyufuyuvbvbllymjnncuhuhbuh7538 come to think of it, I've never seen those two in a room at the same time

[@Italiaasher]

Is this sarcasm? Haha

[@ralfkleine4076]

At least the owner of the ZeaIand Channel didn‘t add a Stake sponsorship logo!

[@thegoodgunner]

at least you didnt have to wait until march for this video

[@vicentebras2659]

@@Italiaasher Wasn't that the most obvious thing ever?

[@TheBubbafadass]

The worst thing is SI taking pre orders only a few weeks ago, as if they didn't full well know that it was likely to be delayed at that point. That is a pretty scummy move in my opinion.

[@sheikyebouti184]

And still have a 'pre-order' button at the top of this announcement

[@iaincowell9747]

No one is being forced to make pre orders

[@Popmycherryyo]

You are allowed to refund it though if you pre-ordered. Even at what time you did so. Soeh.. that point is honestly almost moot

[@SteveGSmith914]

​@iaincowell9747 every shill for SI keeps repeating this. It's unacceptable and no excuse for doing so.

[@Popmycherryyo]

@@SteveGSmith914 Hehe, far from a SI shill :P Havn't bought the game (except this years edition) since 16 or 17 I want to say. I'm just stating facts. And trust me on this one, I hate the whole pre-order ordeal as much as the next guy. I think it's a scummy business model, but SI (and other companies for that matter) keeping up with times or shit that works is just that, them doing their business. I think we as consumers often forget that game devs and whomever they are owned by are in the end a business first. They want our hard earned cash, and as much as possible of it. Which is a damn shame. Cus this DLC, lootboxes, pre-order, "only renting our game" shit that started what, 15-20ish years ago is a cancer that has mutated way too far. Now do I excuse whatever company that does like SI here? That they are "kindhearted" and give the people who pre-ordered a chance to refund? No?...imo, it's the LEAST they could do. They are not some kind of jesus sitting in wherever they are in the world because they are being a decent game dev for once. So yeah, stating facts isn't being a shill, unfortunately for your arguments sake :) Have a nice day though.

[@sadguydylan]

We might have gta6 before fm25

[@LizudemAm]

No. (Big) Rockstar games never come out at the initial release date

[@christofferberner8701]

If they do they are buggy as hell.

[@SongofIceandTea]

Nah, GTA 6 is The Myth, you don't disrespect the GTA 6 release time like that

[@dariorajic3075]

And even if they release in any time near GTA, they can throw that game straight into trash, because everyone will be on GTA.

[@TorukMakto-i7p]

gta 6 will have two delays minimum so 2026 somewhere between April and September..

[@tinol0910]

"At a certain point, your intention doesn't matter. What you DO matters." brilliant quote, Z.

[@DemocracySpreader]

Here’s the thing: this was the year! Big name FIFA creators putting videos up of trying FM. The most public coverage the game has ever received to date. This was the year, and they blew it. Now this fiasco is going to be publicly scrutinized by the most eyes the game has ever garnered.

[@sanderwilhelmus6525]

Last year was the world cup... see what they did to that part of the game? They will remove it...

[@LoremasterYnTaris]

I mean, trying to find the silver lining, but at least that means it'll mostly retain the core audience instead of getting overtaken by the FIFA and mobile crowd. It is truly unfortunate though, aye. Could've been a massive boon to the series and the studio, and they've gone and blown it.

[@sanku1999]

​@@LoremasterYnTarisSI anticipated the FIFA crowd and were making it 'less complex'.

[@donkarnage6986]

Come on dude, you dont know anything..

[@heretustay]

yall need to quit complaining. EA would've released a half finished pile of code and charged you to have fun in it. Si are doing the right thing, I thought FM fans would be more understanding of the pressures of game dev

[@jonwalker280]

the good news is we can get more Crusader Kings on here now, right, right?

[@CapnJack1]

yes plz

[@elliottfinnan3713]

finish the reforming of the Armenian Empire hopefully 👀

[@tunerr1]

The "best" thing about this is that we got watered down FM23 and FM24 because they already moved resources towards FM25 and then they fumble it this bad.

[@lebronjohnson6735]

It's a skill issue on senior management level.

[@jeverydk]

This is the purest nonsense. You clearly have 0 game or it experience if this is your pov.

[@n1troni]

Ur very dense. Check out SI's statements 3 years ago. They literally said they wont do much on fm 23 and 24 because of the change in engine. Not hard to research a bit​@@jeverydk

[@BatteryBee]

But FM24 was good. This take doesn't make sense.

[@n1troni]

@@BatteryBee no, it was a copy pasted version of 23. Very few changes if any

[@BirkenheadBlue]

My guess is that SI only just managed to convince Sega to allow them to do a significant delay. It’s almost always publisher pressure that leads to games being released unfinished.

[@chrisvanegmond3157]

Good call this.

[@AndySport]

This is what I’ve been thinking and I’m surprised that creators aren’t mentioning it. SEGA almost definitely deserves more blame than they’re getting. SI obviously failed to deliver, but the communication and delay weirdness is probably more SEGA than SI, imo.

[@Davidbaratunk]

This disaster has been building for multiple years. FM 2023 and 2024 were both tiny improvements justified by the coming evolution. Half-finished features have been introduced and left to stagnate for multiple years. The trust in SI's ability and their word has been eroding for years, and it's difficult to imagine how they will claw it back.

[@CimbomFanFiction]

The second disaster i think is gonna be what they do with fm26… so whats the new plan if the game does come out in late march? Most soccer seasons end in may.. so we get two months of the game during the active season? Whens FM26 come out? Back to late october and semi in-line with most seasons? I doubt they will make another game in 7 months when they need5 extra months to finish this game. So fm26 comes out next march? Of course not.. they will rush it out in late december and it will SUCK… or fm25 will SUCK and fm26 will be the actual game we expected the year before

[@Davidbaratunk]

@@CimbomFanFiction you could say the first disaster is losing the trust of the fanbase, while the second one is throwing themselves into this washing machine-like development cycle.

[@TheDominicProject]

Really they need to just release "Football Manager", and update it as time goes on. The only issue being how do they monetize it? free to play but pay for database and other features? yearly subscription? Microtransactions?! Pay 2 win? I am joking now but this has been the issue for years, a once a year full rrp game makes more money, but makes little sense when each years iteration is the same with subtle tweaks, deepened systems, new ui.

[@uxuxuvividly7252]

2024 tiny improvements? The match engine was so good this year. I don’t care if they delay fm25 because fm24 was and still is great. I want quality instead of a rushed out game

[@blckheart8148]

I basically preordered fm 26

[@tvojemanka]

With less features than FM 24 😀

[@TehRealRyan]

Just refund it

[@frieza2235]

Never preorder anything bro 😂

[@LeafyPeach]

100%, it's a sham.​@@frieza2235

[@ILikedGooglePlus]

Get a refund, and never pre-order again

[@oteliadavid7507]

Your editing are on point, loved it!

[@sukontoraharjo6565]

Haven't watched you in a year since I'm curing my fm addiction and boy oh boy is your head gets bigger. Keep up the big brain energy, Z.

[@TheDamirBosna]

'''I'm good, I'm fine...'' Zealand hold on, march will arrive eventually :D

[@pavlevasilev2968]

i think lots of content creators hate this from financial perspective since now the ad revenue is highest i mean this is their livelihood.

[@barucic_77]

BOSNIA MENTIONED RAHHHHH

[@denmlastankovic]

Insert Homer Simpsons meme, this is the darkest day in FM history... So Far

[@kykinson1173]

The way SI handled this should be documented and send to every gaming studio in the world on how to not hype a game

[@VoLcaNiCGamingyt]

As a game developer I do have to say this is the best thing they can do. It is incredibly hard to predict release dates because game development is very unpredictable. And that they delay it also means they care. They don’t want to release a bad game. At ea sports they release broken fifa every year.

[@Darkheist8819]

What they probably should do is release FM 25 in march, go back to release FM 26 in october/november, but give 50% discount for people that purchased FM 25. take the hit for a year

[@coyootje]

Or... Just put both at full price and rake in the cash from all the people that buy the game anyway.

[@Herosennin]

@@coyootjeLol right. Everyone here complaining will buy the game anyways and are overdramatic. Not OP here, but other dudes.

[@coyootje]

@@Herosennin don't know if you saw the Clayts video but that really showed that even within the FM youtuber/streamer audience there's a significant group that was going to buy FM25. Now consider how many people play the game and don't follow other people playing it and you have a pretty significant audience to sell your game to.

[@Herosennin]

@@coyootje Exactly. A lot people are basically in their bubble of information. I have 6 friends who play FM and I'm the only one that actually watches content creators play the game and none of us really cared that it'll come out later, because they're implementing an entire new system so this was potentially to be expected and we rather have it be finished than unfinished, even if it takes a longer time. It's like people complaining about GTA not realising that when it comes out they'll probably be astonished. Nothing to be dramatic about as long as they give us an update in 2 months or so. I mean I thought everyone was okay with this version and didnt really need a rehash, but now we cant wait a bit longer for the rehash, like make it make sense lol. I mean Zealand and other creators are excused ofc. It's not just a game to them and their consistency in 'new content' is limited for a couple months due to this.

[@oscobblepotcobblepot6972]

14:52 if Miles didn’t know it was ready he shouldn’t be leading the studio in the first place. Also just occurred to me didn’t they release a press statement or whatever saying development on fm24 was being scaled back to focus on FM25 back when 24 was being developed?

[@LaowaiinFuzou]

I like fm24 but I feel like it’s been given an easy pass because of being told that the main efforts were going to 25.

[@SteveGSmith914]

​@LaowaiinFuzou they've been given a pass for the past 3 years, when they came out and said they were moving to Unity.

[@neilproctor5163]

FM24 is a pretty good game to be fair! I'm more than happy to carry on playing it whilst we wait.

[@otxoagreen]

FM24 is good... but the IA on interactions, managers, transfers... it's not good at all

[@LaowaiinFuzou]

I like the game but yeah the transfers can be weird. Too many times the AI will let teams get an average age of 30+ or sell a talented youngster to only replace them with a 33year old at 50 m who after one year is sold at 10.

[@thaibeefyfm3667]

FM25 needs to be the most amazing football simulation experience EVER (no matter when it's released now) for them to expect anyone to buy it. It's FM26 for me and even that is a wait and see!

[@Alfred.Borden]

If no-one buys FM25, there will be no FM26. Bit of a dilemma here 🤔

[@thaibeefyfm3667]

@@Alfred.Borden Might not be a 26 anyway

[@billsager5634]

@@Alfred.Borden That attitude is EXACTLY what corporations want. Lemmings so blindly loyal to a brand, they will buy the brand regardless of the quality of the product. How about instead - NOT buy FM25 to send a message to SEGA - produce quality products, or we, the consumers, won't buy your crap!!! Even if SEGA decides to drop the FM line, some other gaming company will realize that there is a worldwide market for a quality Football game, and create one.

[@Alfred.Borden]

@@billsager5634 Gambling on a different company to produce a Football Manager? Ohhh, that is such a huge risk I'm not willing to take. With SI we know what we have - and what we don't. They know already that they messed up big time and that the player base has huge expectations now. I usually buy FM every other year. This year wasn't on my list anyways (especially since first iteration on new engine won't be perfect no matter what). I'm unsure what I will do in March. On the other hand, FM27 looks very bright - if (and only if) they get a similar budget as in previous years. And thats exactly the question: How much are we going to suffer together now to have new heights later on? And is that less gambling than what I described at the beginning?

[@hio54]

>Abandon engine and build it on Unity >Don't need to train devs to use your custom made engine >Don't worry bro, we can train our team to use unity >And we'll have access to more devs as a result >"""Streamline""" development >"""Add""" interesting features >Delay Miles. Bring back training sliders circa 2012, you absolute coward.

[@gregorgerzson1767]

I'm those old fans who doesnt care about the graphic. But the gameplay. And it has things to do but now it seems they only care about graphic, so i expect the same annoying stuffs will stay in the game...

[@hio54]

@@gregorgerzson1767 Dwarf Fortress is proof of concept that you don't need good graphics to make an excellent game. I just want the match engine to """work""", and to have my training sliders. Just how god intended.

[@gregorgerzson1767]

@@hio54 Well, I would be glad if they were remove the annoying stuffs and bugs that are in the game since years...

[@MatthewDias25]

They were totally gonna give us an unfinished game until someone eventually came to their senses. Hopefully they at least give FM 24 a new season update.

[@DemocracySpreader]

“Could’ve a week ago” This is the lynchpin of the new issue. Lying to your fan base, especially when they’re a dedicated fan base, leads to much distrust. And the more loyal the pbase, the longer that feeling of distrust will last, and the deeper it’ll be felt. It’s not a coincidence that the release is the last release day before the end of the financial year. This will end up being extra burnout on the staff and/or still a buggy/skeleton release. From what I’ve seen, I believe that the game still won’t be ready then.

[@vmaestro-xj9mp]

The season is almost done in March, normally around that time i’m done with months of football manager and play something else. Total disaster.

[@nathanieltyghe4526]

Facts

[@manephewlenny6401]

They are probably using half of the 5 months development time to work on features that will be left out on purpose of FM25 for FM26 to make up for the tighter schedule next time around...

[@Vasco_Alexandre]

Agree, like National Teams and Multiplayer

[@play4dc]

I would prefer they release a game every 3 years and a DLC every year. I only buy the game every 2-3 years but a cheaper DLC I would definity buy. At this point I feel I might as well wait for fm2026.

[@mw56101]

That's kind of what they do anyway and charge us full price

[@AndrewPaulK80]

Zealand ramping up the pressure lol........love it. great video

[@CintiaJigs]

Loved every second video! You nailed it!

[@collie77]

Good point about the impact on FM 26. I can't remember what happened the last time it was released in March.

[@-Jester]

To play devil's advocate a little - I wonder if the Unity switch came about because of the same reason that the Source 2 upgrade for CSGO/CS2 happened, as in the game had become such a nightmare to work on that it made more sense to just rebuild it all over again with better practices in a new engine. Code debt is a real thing, especially for long term projects.

[@spiderbootsy]

The engine is Archaic, they squeezed as much as they could out of it as they could, but FM is never without bugs. no doubt the back end is an absolute mess. No doubt there is code on there that just works even though it is inefficient with fixes on top of fixes. They probably thought they could use the logic of the old code on certain features to help them rewrite it into the new engine, but they have had to go back to the drawing board and rewrite from scratch, hence why certain features were getting dropped during development

[@-Jester]

@@spiderbootsy Yeah I figure this is what has happened. I don't think it's a case of SI being able to set their own deadlines and have the Unity version come out in 2026. I get the feeling that it needed to be 2025 because they had gotten everything they could out of FM on the old engine. I think people forget that FM24's engine is, at this point, at LEAST 15 years old since the first 3D FM was 2009. 15 years is a long time and you can accrue a huge code debt as developers come and go and experience ebbs and flows. The problem with programming is that there's no one "correct" way to do things, and what makes sense for one developer is insanity for another. A developer leaves SI, their replacement comes in and is tasked with finishing what the previous developer started which involves deciphering what the previous dev did and how they did it, perhaps with poor commenting or no substantial notes anywhere. Now multiply that by 15 years. Multiply that by 15 years extra experience for SI on how to do things more efficiently. It's certainly an unenviable position for SI to be in. My biggest gripe about this whole mess is that March is a LONG way away, which makes me wonder how unfinished the game currently is and how long SI knew that the November release date was unattainable. If they said "okay we only need an extra month" I'd think that "this stuff happens, deadlines get missed, a month to tidy the game up isn't that bad." It isn't that. It's 6 months. If you need 6 months to finish the game then the game was never close to being finished.

[@thehildabeast100]

That’s fair but also the last two FMs had limited features and upgrades because they were allegedly working on the game.

[@-Jester]

@@thehildabeast100 That's the problem with yearly releases. People are still going to expect a game every year and if the Unity version was 3 years out, you can't just say "hey so there's gonna be no FMs for 3 years". Yes, they have said that recent FMs have had less features because less people are working on the old engine and more are on the new engine, but it's also possible that there simply *wasn't* much more to get out of the old engine. Both can be true at the same time. I'm not saying people don't have a right to be mad about it. SI certainly could've and should've handled it better. I'm mad about it. My devil's advocate is more against people saying that FM didn't need to move to Unity when we don't know what the backend looks like at all.

[@thehildabeast100]

@@-Jester yes sounds like senior management at SI failed to allocate resources properly to develop the game. Typical complacent lazy management with dumb ideas

[@KennyTyT]

In the UK it is very typical for the fiscal year to be from April to March, every company I've ever worked for that has been the fiscal year so I wouldn't say that's the sole reason. Good video :)

[@ew7339]

Hi Zealand, your Zealand podcast link in your description doesn’t link to anything. Also, can we get new Armchair History eps?

[@sinful9347]

They knew. They had to have known when they launched pre-orders that they were going to delay the game as far back as possible. They want to make as much money as possible from this, and the only way they'd get people to pre-order is by launching pre-orders over a week before announcing what they did, hoping people would be stupid enough not to cancel their pre-orders. That's the only way they were ever going to make money on this hopeless project.

[@Mallrat8391]

Or maybe, it could be that they were going to be ready for the initial delayed release date with alot of hard work and overtime, but one bit of code to fix an issue suddenly broke many things in the game and they've just said fuck it theres no chance of us getting it fixed in time now. None of us know what's really gone on, and thats on SI for being really shit at communicating things.

[@formerhermit12]

@@Mallrat8391they delayed it to the last possible date of their fiscal year. We can read between the lines and see this for what it is: a cash grab. They knew the game wasn’t ready when they started taking pre orders. They have shown literally 0 of the new engine, the whole point of this new era. The game wasn’t even in a point to show us their major update for this game.

[@bluebanana9974]

@@formerhermit12 Is it a cash grab, or is it an attempt to stay afloat as a business? Clearly their model is invest into the game, and bring in revenue once a year with the new launch - don't think it's unfair for them to release a game late - if you don't want it, don't buy it

[@formerhermit12]

@@bluebanana9974 it’s a cash grab to get people to pay you for something you can’t deliver. It’s scummy as hell and not something anybody should be defending.

[@kevjg4889]

​@@Mallrat8391that's simply not how development works. They knew.

[@daman571]

fm26 won't exist (probably) just be an update for 25. Then the rest will probably be released in August, to give them time to work on them

[@StreetSoulLover]

SI revealed something about themselves over the last month Slimy, very very slimy!

[@kevinmottram9491]

Slimy Idiots?

[@chrismeeks809]

7:09 i’m the head of an international spy ring, and i play fm while i should be monitoring zealands freaky texts with diddy

[@leonesushi]

Thank god FM24 is still here.

[@pan-africanmovement938]

Yeah, would've been a catastrophe if we didn't have FM 24 with all its major improvements.

[@sgy77777]

The game being delayed into the last month before the fiscal year end is no coincidence. Coincidence in sales & business planning is very rare.

[@lemon_tek9531]

best intro ever! well done Z

[@morlath4767]

Totally agree, Z. For whatever reason, SI/FM decided they were ready to make FM 25 the first Unity version when it's obviously not. It kinda feels like either it was forced on them (from Sega) or someone decided that they didn't want to bother working on any more old engine FMs no matter what.

[@SteveGSmith914]

They wanted Unity for FM22. They've been working on it for over 5 years. This was an SI decision to move to Unity. Unity and every developer have said how easy Unity is to program for. They've dropped the ball big time and someone needs to be accountable for it.

[@KingdomOfStars]

SPOT ON 👌

[@meelooxavier6502]

20:27 this stuff happens in development. Always. The fact that SI didn't screw up badly for 20 years is quite remarkable

[@Milton6257]

Zealand is absolutely bang on with everything he has said.

[@scpjack7856]

Last time I was this early Zealand actually ran.

[@PremieryMuzycznePM]

I was waiting for this hahaha we love you Zealand ❤❤❤

[@lukefitch7698]

If this is what it takes for Miles to step down then I'll take the delay with glee. He's become Southgate at this point. Thanks for the glorious memories but it's been evident for a LONG time he's been focussing the game in the wrong direction and making some questionable calls. FM is crying out for some new blood

[@dariorajic3075]

Couldn't agree more. If he gets sacked or steps down, I will wait until FM 27, no problem.

[@rebeccakravitz7711]

This would lead the game to be even worse, sega would hire some crazy EA style head

[@dariorajic3075]

@@rebeccakravitz7711 We will never know because he has put himself as a lead persona of the game and look what happened.

[@lukefitch7698]

@@rebeccakravitz7711 Might make it more of a creative democracy though. Increasingly the decisions seem to reflect Miles' personal vision for the game - greater emphasis on janky meetings and poorly implemented press conferences/interactions because of "realism", hideously modelled 3D newgens instead of 2D facepacks because apparently you can see them in the match engine (you can't). Training is completely unintuitive and international management is dull. The community has pointed these things out for years but energy is spent elsewhere. He very much treats the game like it's his baby, which in a way it is, but it's also outgrown him I think. At best he's stubborn and blinkered. At times though I'd go as far as to say he treats the fanbase with disdain. I would speculate that this is something staff at SI contend with too. He clearly thinks he knows best. It's hard to say whether a new "gaffer" would be more open to the wants of the community or not. Can almost guarantee however that they'd be less willfully blind to what doesn't work. FM has been crying out for innovation for a long time, the switch to Unity is the right call but it's obviously been totally mismanaged.

[@TheDominicProject]

you are talking about this like people beg for their clubs manager to be sacked.... but of course how can you know? If you don't work at SI you don't actually know the problem, of course you could be right too but ultimately this is a baseless point

[@DrMaiXiang]

ON the plus side, gives me more time to carry on with my fishbourne romans save, from the 13th tier to champions league winners in 20 seasons

[@AclibButLikeTheRealOne]

Dont mind it too mchh tbh, just means ill get more out of fm 24. We cant really say anything about fm25 until its released, my usual stance on these sort of things is that they should take their time. Sure the announcement could have come a lot sooner but all in all Im actually happy since this means if it was released on time it would not have been good.

[@CozyHumanoid]

Exactly. Still enjoying 24 the most complete game we got.

[@sie11pervan]

You can say they don't have anything. No gameplay footage after this many months? They don't have anything.

[@Ratzy1614]

Reece: hows the video coming zealand *napping* zealand: oh ya its coming good (goes back to nap)

[@theaemulator]

No idea why would they bother to even release FM25 ..... FM25 should be called FM26 Demo release 🙄🤦🤷‍♂️🤯

[@christofferberner8701]

They have a contract with SEGA they need to uphold to not be held liable.

[@ElEmElEkv13]

@@christofferberner8701 That's their problem. They are screwed with FM26 and SEGA no matter what. Either FM25 will be great, and FM26 sales will be low, because it won't change much and FM25 will be new enough. Or FM25 will be not good enough and that will greatly impact FM26 sales too. In the long run, scrapping FM25 would most likely be more beneficial. Just release FM25update as a dlc for FM24 for free or a couple bucks. It's totally not like FM23 and FM24 were almost exatcly that but for the full price...

[@christofferberner8701]

@@ElEmElEkv13 sure it's their problem. But if the contract says yearly release of game, it means yearly release of game, independent on quality. So scrapping might not be an option

[@SongofIceandTea]

Because they have PL license for FM25, and i don't think that was cheap 😂

[@ElEmElEkv13]

​@@christofferberner8701 That's propably the case, but it will still cost sega money in the long run. They need to figure someting out together not to damage the FM brand too much.

[@k.ccomments3149]

I think the only positive you can really take from this is at least they didn’t just release a broken, incomplete, mess of a game just to get it out

[@J2911L]

Casual content enjoyer here. I was incredibly hyped for Cyperbunk 2077 after playing The Witcher III from CDPR. They took around 10 years to develop Cyberpunk 2077 and it was a mess on launch, just because they kept delaying and delaying. And at some point the investors or whomever said they had to release. Their entire reputation was in the bin. Absolutely shattered. Come 2024 the game is actually really good, they made a profit out of it. But what it has become now, should have been this from the beginning. Just so say; It's better to delay a game, rather than rush it out. Especially if they feel the quality isn't up to par with that they've released etc. I don't know, I'd rather Cyberpunk would have been delayed for 2 or 3 more years rather than the mess we had at the start.

[@soapmaclavish8773]

I can fully appreciate the example but seems a bit apple to oranges - CDPR isn't on the hook for regular fiscal year releases for their game. SI is gonna release this, maybe (MAYBE) push out a few fixes, and then they have to primarily focus on FM26.

[@WilhelmUnterharnscheidt]

cyberpunk was a mess and delayed because of bad timing and need of rewriting code for next gen consoles. Fm25 is delayed because of bad management.

[@TKBomber7285]

While I agree with what you are saying, there is no way a yearly sports game can delay release for that long. Heck delaying it this long might destroy the company especially with the bad publicity.

[@nostalgeomusic]

Most of the time, situations like this are due to overreaching expectations from leadership and executives. I imagine the employees working on it have been working their ass off and are feeling the pressure.

[@vital0208]

They have an absolute monopoly in this genre so no wonder they can get away with the greed and laziness that SI is showing for like 5 years already... Wish EA would return the FIFA Manager series, competition is the only way for progress.

[@beau9956]

If you're after an amazing sports management game try Hockey Legacy Manager 25. Its pretty great. Shutout to Golden Lap for a motorsport manager

[@dariorajic3075]

Look it from Battle Royale games perspective...H1Z1 didn't bother to do nothing with game, thinking they were Kings of the BR castle. Where are they now? Just look at the competition for BR games.

[@deltav864]

5 years? Granted I started with FM20, but I've seen screenshots of when it was called Championship Manager and it looks like the same game except with an UI that reminds me of Windows 95.

[@braxton9192]

Looking for EA to come in and create competition is hilariously ironic since they too are adverse to competition themselves 🤣

[@Veaseify]

The only advantage Fifa Manager had over Football Manager was the actual FIFA match engine...and it was broken. Every other part of the game was worse than Football Manager.

[@Antipasta17]

Well the good news is the Crusader Kings videos are gold

[@Bokkenseur]

the whole fiscal year thing doesn't really make too much sense. you want your revenue to come in before the end of the fiscal year not after, so releasing it just a few days before is over doesn't really make a difference. I do think March is a deadline discussed with sponsors and licensing partners though to avoid having to void those contracts by releasing the game too late

[@iamnoone5405]

Thank god miles will be able to resume his well deserved holidays

[@ollieduracell]

This has been a total clusterf**k

[@EscapeVelocity25k]

So glad I decided to wait and see. I'm still playing FM22, was planning on upgrading to FM25 this year but now it looks like I might just upgrade to FM24 at a discount and wait for FM26. I wonder if financially it would be viable to make a new game every 2 years or even 3 years and do an annual DLC for $30 instead to introduce a few small features and roster/kit/etc. updates. They could even use feedback on these small changes to inform the new iteration of the base game.

[@Robbie883]

How did Zealand know I play FM in my boxer's 😂

[@Cedinero]

Cause we all do that.

[@Robbie883]

@@Cedinero fair point

[@TheFurinfuretto]

well the move we as a communitiy have to make is simple. all buy the game at the 1. of april

[@bohdanmaliar9655]

Broski just read the boilerplate gaming studio excuse for 5 minutes straight lol. The fiscal year of Sony is no different from other companies tho. As a dev from a similar industry I can say with 100% confidence that devs that are actually working on this game told their management about unrealistic timings a long time ago. The problem is that most of the big companies have very bad management system right now and there are people in manager positions that have no clue about Football or Games at all.

[@n1troni]

No. Google is from january to december, microsoft from july to june, sony from march to may. Just because u work on goat simulator doesnr mean u know everything in the industry lol

[@rogom-ts4ew]

Agree with this. The developers will more than likely have been pushed and not been listened to by people in the company who do not understand the complexities of the project. When time taken to actually develop and code is the biggest barrier. Unrealistic time projections and probably lack of expertise/skills in replicating components of the original game (from the in-house developed game engine) into unity. They were probably just too ambitious to deliver this in the time frame. I'm not in game development or used to game engines but develop a more basic type of software, so if I said anything wrong correct me 😅Just from my limited experience I can only begin to imagine the types of problems they would've had in the last months and years.

[@deltav864]

I think it's the other way around; management pushing for unrealistic deadlines and the devs concerns falling on deaf ears... unless there's an unhealthy culture of fear, which is arguably an even greater problem.

[@rogom-ts4ew]

Yeah I understand - I also do believe that to be the case about an unrealistic deadline with concerns from developers about time

[@markmarkson2666]

Its Zealand the future FIFA guy!

[@puffin7285]

5:00 they are projecting it because it's end of financial year. They will release it whether it is ready or not to not miss a whole release window

[@dariorajic3075]

As someone who used to work in a big company, especially in financial department, they will be forced to release FM25 even if it looked like FM 24 again just with another name. The money needs to be made. Either they will bring profits or there will be a huge cuts in the studio.

[@ibrahimchowdhury9779]

The subtle foreshadowing at the start 😂😂😂

[@lengman_1]

See you guys in FM 26. FM25 will not be seeing me

[@RevJock]

The September announcement was the real balls up here!

[@tomdavies8730]

Sort of makes sense why AFC Wimbledon doesn’t have a “Football Manager” sponsorship this year on their kits… Did SI know this was gonna happen 🤔

[@lukehiggins5473]

That intro was amazingly done!

[@gmuzz]

Miles' head will be on sega block for this.....

[@luiz.fortuna]

the worst thing is that they opened pre-orders weeks ago, when people expected to wait 1 or 2 months to get the game... now either you wait almost 6 months to get what you've paid or you have to go through the refunding process! WTF.

[@TubeYou-c7w]

I think the reality is this is never happening, everything comes to an end. They have been building this game since 2020 …..

[@ciyradyl_official]

They could release a free data update for FM24 and announce that the next game will be FM26, giving them a two-year development period.

[@CulturedLeftFoot]

Wasn’t Miles Jacobsen around for the fumble of CM4 as well as the fumble of FM25…….

[@nicktankard1244]

Yes. He was already the managing director at that time. But you can’t fault the guy. Sustaining a super niche video game franchise for 25 years is impressive.

[@Collouk1]

@@nicktankard1244making pretty much the same game for 20 years isn’t that impressive, this update they are attempting should be done at least 10 years ago

[@nicktankard1244]

@@Collouk1 impressive keeping it profitable all these years. Its a niche of gaming so you can’t have big budgets. But yeah I agree that they should’ve tried modernizing it way earlier

[@K-E-N-07]

The other option is that they knew it was not ready, announced it for pre order anyway to get some cash and are now pushing it back knowing that not everyone will get a refund

[@benedictwallis1993]

100% agree with the stupid November release date. Should have been moved forward way before this release cycle. Wouldn’t be surprised if Miles stepped down or was asked to step down as SI Director.

[@viniciusdavila2737]

Without a new edition of FM in the coming weeks, thousands will turn to crack, heroine and meth as a substitute.

[@timwelsh6130]

Surely the correct play here is to kill FM25, release an update patch or 2 (for rosters now and after the window closes + women's database if ready) and just release FM26 in September 25. Otherwise what new features would be able to be added inside 6 months between a March release of FM 25 and a September - October release of FM26.

[@Alfred.Borden]

What do their license agreements say? Are they obliged to release a new iteration each year to not violate those contracts? And if so, how much change must a new iteration bring to count as a new/different game? 🤔

[@gylduran9217]

Legally they can't do this as they have licenses for the various leagues (including the Premier League) that have to come out this year, and its only licensed for FM25, not FM26 (yes the name and release time matters). Also, SEGA WILL NOT let them skip a release for their fiscal year, simple as that.

[@bimbogiallo]

Especially since one can except a lot of time being required for bug fixes of fm25 while working on the '26 version

[@alanhardman8504]

I think you summed it up well. Fm25 will hopefully come out then fm26 in November at a reduced price a fm 25.5 with little new stuff I think

[@f3l1x_03]

I think the change will pay off. Championship Manager 4 was a Flop too, but the change did pay off, just give the game 2 years

[@Vasco_Alexandre]

In todays market SI can’t handle a new Flop like CM04…

[@petardjakovic3612]

@@Vasco_Alexandre Why they can't, do they have any competition that makes football manager games?

[@kyriosshireman5623]

Does this at least mean that we get a new fm24 save from Zealand soon rather than wait until November (now March)?

[@hremostypas]

If we being real, they should release fm26 and update the databases for fm24, cancelling the release of fm25

[@paulwbafc73]

What's to say SI don't revert to the old trusted working match engine. They may revert to what they know will work to get a game out.

[@connorriddle]

I have no insider knowledge but I have high confidence that SI had every intention to release the game in November with it not being ready. It was only after all the backlash from everyone online on the trailer and lack of gameplay that they realised the reputational damage that would come from rushing it out, hence the sudden long delay. I can see the game still not being ready in March, FM26 will probably have zero new features but be a fully working version of FM25. Massively disappointed by the conduct of SI.

[@deltav864]

Agreed, it reeks of damage control. Concerning though that they're so detached from reality that nobody saw that response coming.

[@balint4925]

"Playing this game in your basement in your boxers at 2am" me looking at the clock, it's 3:42 am, looking down, boxers. thank F I live on the groundfloor and not in the basement. :D

[@milosruss]

meanwhile: me playing FM21 and eating chips

[@TheDominicProject]

bruh 24 has the best tactics / player intelligence, you been wasting time xd

[@theturkishrider]

@@TheDominicProject nah i honestly hate fm24, it has quite a lot of bugs too. fm23 is to go for

[@MrSamWilson1]

If the game is still not up to scratch when it actually releases in March, it could set the series back a decade. They can kiss goodbye to those 'more players than ever before' announcements for the next few years and they'll need the original diehard fanbase more than ever

[@Cedinero]

I would even pay for a FM24 update if they dropped one. They should cancel FM25 and drop FM26 in August/September 2025.

[@vital0208]

You can literally download any update you want for free... People like you are the reason SI became so greedy and lazy, they're introducing the same game with minor patches for 4-5 years already and people are still buying this shit as a new game.

[@alezandercorben4122]

The makers of Elite Dangerous released a much hyped DLC called Odyssey, it was released too early, bugs, really bad frame rates but it was just in time for the fiscal year.

[@craigbuckland6584]

30 years of living a game being ruined for changes that are not necessary.

[@FMZgaming]

Zealand is right on the money with this video, it has to be perfect come march

[@theqaz1828]

19:15 I've always passionately believed they should be releasing the new FM games in August of each year (September at latest), in line with the new demestic seasons and then releasing database updates as required.

[@gazatim1983]

The most scathing response I have seen so far.

[@muhammadnazrin3390]

I personally prefer companies push back their lauch date rather than churn out a buggy low quality mess, while also burning out theur devs. However, with a almost 6 months of extra time, their better be some kind of Beta so players can iron out the details if it comes up. You can't push your launch date back that far and still end up with a product that is not up to par.

[@Alfred.Borden]

It's just 4 months if you think about it. Release Nov vs Mar. Lets hope it's worth it though 🙂

[@bushmonster1702]

I wouldn’t get your hopes up. Probably a better idea to wait until the game after or even 2026.

[@nomadman_84]

its also going to mean that every subsequent FM will also be "late" ; no way FM26 can come out in November if 25 release in March. FM27 in that case is also going to be later in the year etc etc etc.

[@MrBratalis99]

I have no faith in Miles and his elfs. Time for a new developer and distributor.

[@distilledwill]

So most companies follow a fiscal year of April-March, but you might still be correct that its bumped as late as humanly possible.

[@phil19852010]

I suspect the FOURTH option, that they fully knew the game wouldn't be released in November but wanted some revenue to be generated via pre-orders

[@dizzydazed8055]

Bang on... fyi I work in the gaming industry

[@omokaroelliot1942]

No, people can ask for refund

[@makchot3263]

​@@omokaroelliot1942 some of them probably don't know

[@phil19852010]

@@omokaroelliot1942 Absolutely but many won't. They'll simply wait until March, while SI invest those funds

[@braxton9192]

​@@omokaroelliot1942true they can... I don't have the numbers but I'm gonna assume that most people use steam and steam is a nightmare to get refunds from...

[@MrRbirdy17]

Best news SI and FM have released in year IMO. Game needs a revamp with the "new features" that are minuscule year after year. Hopefully it will go to a release every other year pattern going forward