Football Manager 25 announces major ‘cuts’ to game modes

Football Manager 25 will be released with considerably fewer game modes than previous entries in the series as part of a major overhaul, Sports Interactive announced.

The franchise is set for a big change in FM25 with a move onto the Unity game engine and the introduction of women’s football alongside the fully-licensed Premier League for the first time—but there will also be some significant removals from the game.

In a development update on June 27, studio manager Miles Jacobson announced a number of “cuts” for FM25 that would see features removed, some of which will return later down the line but some may be gone forever.

The biggest change is that Fantasy Draft will not be available immediately when Football Manager 25 launches and will instead “return much-improved later in the cycle alongside the Main Data Update”—and players have been told to expect more mid-cycle feature releases in the series moving forward.

Fantasy Draft’s delayed entry into FM25 is due to a partnership with FIFAe, the esports division of world football’s governing body, with an invitational FIFAe World Cup taking place in Liverpool from Aug. 29th to Sept. 1, where Football Manager 24 will be used.

The event is “essentially a test run” and Sports Interactive will be “collaborating with FIFAe to explore how we can jointly realise our esports potential.” While details on changes to Fantasy Draft for Football Manager 25 have yet to be revealed, the developers have promised to bring the mode back “bigger and better.”

As for other game modes, Create-a-Club will not feature in FM25 as the team is not able to improve the experience to the level they’re looking for and “decided not to rush it.” Instead, it will return in Football Manager 26 with “lots of changes and improvements.”

Versus Mode will also not return for FM25, and it’s yet to be decided whether it has a future in the franchise moving forward, while Challenge Mode is also being shelved but is “scheduled to return completely revamped” in either Football Manager 26 or Football Manager 27.

Other gameplay features have also seen changes, with Touchline Shouts removed entirely, the removal of the bespoke social media screen, and the end of Football Manager’s trusted Inbox—which is replaced by the Portal, a “richer window to the wider footballing universe.”

Football Manager 25’s release date will be announced in “early September,” when pre-orders for the title will also go live, and new gameplay elements will be revealed soon after.