United Kingdom, Sept. 1 -- Sports Interactive boss Miles Jacobson claims that releasing the cancelled Football Manager 25 would have "damaged" the developer.

The annual game was shelved in February after a series of issues in development but Jacobson felt that the choice to pull the plug was ultimately correct - despite the embarrassment it caused to the company.

He told BBC Newsbeat: "If we had released FM25 in the state that it was in, it wouldn't have been good value for money and it would have damaged us forever."

Fans claimed that communication about the cancellation wasn't very clear, but Jacobson pointed out that the stock market had to know before players.

He explained: "When it comes to cancelling, we have to let the stock ma...