Ed Nightingale
Football Manager 2023 Console will now launch on 1st February for PlayStation 5.
The inaugural PS5 edition of the game was delayed in November due to “unforeseen circumstances which arose during the submissions and approval process”.
The game will also have a 20 percent discount for PlayStation Plus subscribers until 14th February, a discount consistent with the pre-order incentive prior to the initial intended release.
“We’re delighted with today’s update that we’re finally going to be able to get FM23 Console into the hands of PS5 gamers. Since the initial delay, the team at Sports Interactive and our colleagues at Sega have worked tirelessly with Sony to overcome the issues and we’re pleased to now have a release candidate ready to launch next week,” said Miles Jacobson, studio director at Sports Interactive.
“While it’s unusual for us to release a game during a major football transfer window, our priority from the moment our initial launch was postponed was to get the game into the hands of PS5 gamers as quickly as possible. Once all the global transfer windows are closed, we will provide a data update for the PS5 edition in line with the updates for all of our other platforms.”
The delay to the PS5 version followed a previous controversy that resulted in a two year no show for Football Manager on PlayStation due to a lack of dev kits.
Then its return was announced in September, followed by the subsequent delay.
In our Football Manager 2023 review on PC, we described it as “the best sim of its kind”, but the “lack of major improvements shows an annual release schedule taking its toll”.