Will FM25 bankrupt Sports Interactive?

Sports interactive have published their annual accounts up until March 2024, as a result we now know how much significant investment has been made into the Football Manager 2025/FM25

[wonkeydonkeyTV]

We're about 3wk away from them saying its delayed till August

[VurtAddicted]

The millions of women that will finally play FM will surely make the bet profitable

[dkhawk]

Great analysis. Crazy that steam has the least amount of players. Makes sense why they are shifting the design language of the UI.

[edvorak]

Sega will pickup the bill for any losses on this one. Once FM gets into a few releases on the new engine, all will be good again.

[theqaz]

It's kind of crazy how much the cost to produce the game has gone up in the last 5 years yet, while the game has gotten better, it sure has hell hasn't tracked in line with increased costs.

[SimonWakefieldUK]

Something that so many people aren't even realising is its not just this year. By having to delay this years it means the development window between being able to switch resources away from fm25 to the point that feature lock happen becomes very small so improvements in fm26 from fm25 will be small so fm26 wont be a major improvement so its likely to be two years of impacted sales they will have

[FMRAGE-tw]

I really think this will be a great gamble paying off!
FM is a massive part of my life and helps me mentally at tough times of my life!
No risk no reward
Sometimes you just have to roll the dice ❤

[inacionelson]

I think Sports Interactive need to release a meaningful product early March and if possible earlier. Because the fiscal year ends in March and they will need strong sales numbers to improve results

[theflyingscotsmanFM]

Great explanation 👍 fingers crossed the gamble does pay off for them.

[seanmahoney-ee]

What they can’t do is rush something out at Easter that’s 80% ready to try and squeeze some revenue out because the majority of people won’t pay £35 for a release with eight weeks of the season remaining. They need to write this year off and have a strong release for next season. Releasing a half baked product 2/3 of the season in will do nothing but damage the brand. Make it worth waiting for.

[robertperring]

A number of points to make here - Firstly, thank you. I might have to listen to it again.
Secondly, it seems clear to me that Miles and Co knew they were heading for disaster and decided opaque was the best policy whilst using the word transparency. Miles and Co knew and buried their heads in the sand. They have no-one but themselves to blame. I have bought Football Manager games on and off since the late 2000s. Not for charity, but for my pleasure. I do not see what pleasure I will get from a simulator for a season already gone. Again, I will not be buying FM25 for charity. Will this bankrupt them? I don't care. There are always other games to enjoy. My heart goes out to the content creators and the financial harm it's doing to them. I wish them all the very best luck. I note with with interest that Miles and Co has shown little care about their situation.
I have made my peace with the situation. At the moment I have just started a new save on FM24 after taking a month away. In March, I will not buy FM25. If SI is still here, I will buy FM26 in October, if available. If not...
Miles and Co have cocked-up before on a major change in this game. CM04 was delayed and buggy. It came out in April 04. It created problems with Eidos, which, in turn split everything up. Eventually SI was saved by Saga. The same management were in control then. Will Miles and Co be replaced? Will they just be allowed to dangle? Will they have a demand from their masters to fall on their swords? I think it is time for Miles and Co leave. Let someone else clean things up.
Thank you for this video.

[ivanlimzg]

FM25 will not bankrupt SI but already sunk the reputation of the company. A case of doing too much in too little time

[zenarcher]

Perhaps it's time for a "Championship Manager" comeback! Imagine if Square Enix brought it back as a mix of "spreadsheet manager" and a sort of "Captain Tsubasa" lol! I fondly remember the old "Player Manager" game from Anco.

[JB]

The issue they have is that fm 2025 only has a 6 months shelf life before fm 26 comes out, and thats a HARD sell

I think they have to announce AT LEAST 1 of
A. FM 26 will release in november (later to give "fm 26 more development time"- give fm2025 more shelf life)
B. People who buy fm 25 will get money off fm 26 (can do this through steam)
C. Price decrease due to the delay for people who own fm 24

That or these numbers are fake to avoid tax (10x the cost of sale in 4 years to be honest is stupidly high)

[rossco]

It's one thing going through companies house and looking at all the financials they submit, but it's another knowing how a lot of companies actually manipulate there earnings especially when they are earning a healthy taxable profit. The vast majority of companies that make a profit that is small enough, actually do not submit their actual profits to avoid paying all the tax, infact, they post minor losses or break even quite often. Obviously they have to show that they are a profitable company at some point and as can be seen, SI have done this a bit in the past, but that's why they have very good accountants that can hide the profit by re-investing the money back into the company.

TLDR, no, FM25 or any other iteration of FM won't bankrupt SI. Going through companies house and looking at their financials doesn't say anything.

[freddie_mvp]

The fact that the research cost £125m over 5 years and the game got worse in that time tells you just how good SI are at developing. Shambles.

[Adamtendo_player_]

They just need to go back to what made football manager great in the first place and simplify the training schedule cause I feel that while I understand what they were trying to do with the dynamics system I just think it overcomplicate things in my opinion.

[RISKITTB]

I cant understand why they didnt release FM2025 as a £20 gsme in November on old engine and just admit it is a stop gsp product with updated licenses and database whilst this is resolved. Many iterations are very minor improvments so if they were transparent and priced lower people would have been fine. Instead this debacle unfolds and it is not looking too rosey for SI

[VRSC]

People acting like they have never delayed a release before

[burningphoneix]

I haven't bought a new footyman since FM14. I was getting tired of the barely incremental improvements I was paying full price for and decided to hold off for a couple years until I saw an AMA Miles did on reddit where someone asked if the annual "OVER 300 NEW FEATURES" marketing spiel was a bit misleading and Miles just went off on this poor fan who was very respectful. Couldn't support SI after that.

Not that I need anything more than FM14 anyways so I don't care if SI goes bellyup.