Great to finally see some news, glad they're leading with the match engine update as that's what so many will want to see. I think the switch to 3D was in 2008 for FM 2009, it's well overdue a more modern look.
Hopefully the extra year has got the game to a really good place, I remember the horrendous state CM4 was in when that came out.
Looking forward to this version more than usual with all the changes and taking over our research again for the last year or so - and on that point, Fullah is a really difficult player to rate! Being versatile and pretty much perfectly two footed are weighted highly leaving less room to reflect other areas of his game.
Who's this for though? I don't want any of this. I don't care if there's a shiny match engine, I don't even use the 3D match engine anymore because the actually interesting thing is putting together a new squad, developing young players, taking a club up through the divisions and reloading if you don't beat Crystal Palace. I'm concerned that my potato laptop isn't going to have the specs to run FM26 without catching fire and even if it does they'll have spent two years painstakingly getting the advertising hoardings right instead of improving the things that make FM24 maddening. Is the AI still unable to handle squad building after the first few years? Do players still demand £300k a week from you and then go to another club for £40k a week instead? Are all player interactions still insane dice rolls written by a man who's never not ended a conversation with an argument? That's the stuff I'm interested in, I want the actual management part to run better, not the stick figures running around to be more convincing. I guess we'll see what they've been up to soon.
Who's this for though? I don't want any of this. I don't care if there's a shiny match engine, I don't even use the 3D match engine anymore because the actually interesting thing is putting together a new squad, developing young players, taking a club up through the divisions and reloading if you don't beat Crystal Palace. I'm concerned that my potato laptop isn't going to have the specs to run FM26 without catching fire and even if it does they'll have spent two years painstakingly getting the advertising hoardings right instead of improving the things that make FM24 maddening. Is the AI still unable to handle squad building after the first few years? Do players still demand £300k a week from you and then go to another club for £40k a week instead? Are all player interactions still insane dice rolls written by a man who's never not ended a conversation with an argument? That's the stuff I'm interested in, I want the actual management part to run better, not the stick figures running around to be more convincing. I guess we'll see what they've been up to soon.
My understanding is much of the underlying code on the backend was from fm05. 20 years later most of the people who worked on it are long gone, there are likely bits of code that work but nobody quite understands why and how but if you remove it the game breaks and it’s extremely limiting for building more things on it. This gives them the ability to build for the next 20 years and hopefully make things in a way that’s modular and adaptable for future teams, in a way that’s much better than the engine they use now.
Is anyone actually bothered by the match engine looking like this? It's never goinf to be EA FC levels of realistic and there was some charm to the slightly clunky graphics I thought
I for one am delighted about the richer atmosphere that I will never hear because what kind of psychopath plays Football Manager with the sound on?! The day I get this I will do what I always do, which is download the skin that allow for Instant Result and spend more than half the season pressing that button rather than watching the drawings of footballers not do what I tell them to for 15 minutes. Get me to transfer windows, youth intakes and new job offers as quickly as possible and minimise the amount of space bar I have to hit so international breaks don't feel like actual real life international breaks and I will be happy.
Well, happier. If when I ask the board for improved training facilities because they're still at National League level in the Championship they still end that meeting with 'in future, please don't waste our time with things like this', or if I praise a player for scoring a hattrick and he ends the conversation with 'I'll be going if that's all. I'm sure you'll need me for something else soon' then my laptop's going out the window.
Is anyone actually bothered by the match engine looking like this? It's never goinf to be EA FC levels of realistic and there was some charm to the slightly clunky graphics I thought
The core fanbase will continue to play regardless, but to attract new/younger fans it needed to step up.
Yeah I'm with you @Garrymanilow, CM01/02 will always be my favourite and one I still play now, because of how simple it was. It feels too technical a game for me now... Its been made too complicated compared to the better versions.
The players still moonwalk like in the old match engine... given that an entire year/edition had to be skipped, I was hoping for a more significant advancement
A bit surprised that in a new gaming engine and 2 years behind games the players have the same animation. I thought the whole point of moving to unity was that they could update them to be more realistic. Not very difficult to apply motion capture data in unity - that’s kind of why it’s so popular with independent studios.
Don’t really care too much about the match engine as long as there aren’t bizarre bugs in it. Care more about how the man management, scouting, transfers etc work. Extremely tiresome trying to praise a player and they throw a hissy fit about it.
Yeah I'm with you @Garrymanilow, CM01/02 will always be my favourite and one I still play now, because of how simple it was. It feels too technical a game for me now... Its been made too complicated compared to the better versions.
01/02 was my first game in the series and I love it. I do like the increased detail though, just in the areas that I can affect. I like there being more complex tactical setups, I like complex youth production systems, affiliate clubs and granular training regimens, all of which you can ignore and leave to your assistant if you don't fancy thinking about it. What frustrated me is the fact the focus has been on the match engine for years and no matter what they do it will still skew towards certain attributes - like how for years it's been all about physical stats, especially pace and jumping reach - while the rest of the game withers. The press conference questions have been the same for years, transfers are still incredibly simplistic and lack any sense of back and forth with teams or a saga developing that puts pressure on the clubs. Imagine a situation like Isak or Guehi or even Gibbs-White happening on FM, it's just not equipped for it. It's possible that they've used their time to completely refresh all that stuff. I wouldn't be surprised if they've used generative AI to make the press conferences and interactions flow a bit better rather than basing them on Miles being a social disaster. If they have used their time to fix all that stuff up as well then great. If not it'll just be a slower 24
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Hopefully the extra year has got the game to a really good place, I remember the horrendous state CM4 was in when that came out.
Looking forward to this version more than usual with all the changes and taking over our research again for the last year or so - and on that point, Fullah is a really difficult player to rate! Being versatile and pretty much perfectly two footed are weighted highly leaving less room to reflect other areas of his game.
https://archive.ph/2025.08.29-053959/https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6564634/2025/08/29/miles-jacobson-football-manager-interview-fm25-fm26/
Well, happier. If when I ask the board for improved training facilities because they're still at National League level in the Championship they still end that meeting with 'in future, please don't waste our time with things like this', or if I praise a player for scoring a hattrick and he ends the conversation with 'I'll be going if that's all. I'm sure you'll need me for something else soon' then my laptop's going out the window.