Football Manager 2025 devs explain why they can’t just update FM24 database

Following the news that FM25 has been delayed to March 2025, many fans had hoped that Sports Interactive would bridge the gap by updating the player data of FM24. However, the devs have announced that this won’t be the case and explained why.

It’s no secret that Football Manager 2025 has run into a few issues during development. The community was initially worried when pre-orders were announced before they’d seen any of the game, before it was inevitably delayed from November 2024 to early 2025.

Given that this places it more than halfway through the domestic football season, players were calling for a database update to FM24. This would allow them to use refreshed squads and players for the 2024/25 season without any of the new features planned for the sequel.

But after “exploring” the idea since the delay was confirmed, developer Sports Interactive has revealed that it would be too large a task to bring the 2024 game in line with 2025’s many changes.

“Having now scoped the work that would be required, and despite a good initial response from our licensors, we cannot lift assets that we are using in FM25 and make them work in FM24 without recreating them in full,” they said in a statement.

“The same applies to the many competition rules, translations, and database changes that cannot be ported back.”

Ultimately, with development on FM25 still ongoing, the key factor behind the decision not to update FM24 is that the team wants to focus all of their efforts on delivering the football sim that the community has come to expect.

“This is a substantial undertaking which would take critical resources away from delivering FM25 to the highest possible quality, which we simply cannot compromise on,” they continued.

They also went to say that players who don’t want to wait and play FM25 so deep into the new season can secure a refund by contacting their retailer. When it does finally launch early next year, the devs have promised that players will need to “relearn” the game following some of the planned changes.