Sports Interactive’s Football Manager 26 isn’t an iterative upgrade like prior games. Built on a brand-new engine with a brand-new UI—all while offering new features—the upcoming sports simulation game is going to take some time to get used to.
With the game launching very soon, and the game’s early access beta launching even sooner with a free demo also coming, long-time fans are bound to find a lot of rough edges. In fact, while the Football Manager games are usually buggy, Sports Interactive boss Miles Jacobson explains this title may have rougher edges than most.
Speaking to YouTube Channel FM.Zweierkette and Jonukas, Jacobson explained that this is the “first step into the new series” and that might come with some more quirks than a usual yearly update.
“It’s not a better version of FM24,” the Sports Interactive boss told the YouTubers, “it’s not a worse version of FM24, it’s FM26.” Jacobson explained that the last two decades of FM games have all been based on the same foundation with the team spending years iterating on that same core. This time, it’s different with a completely new base to work from that will be improved year-on-year.
“It’s going to take time for those things to come back.”
Sports Interactive boss Miles Jacobson on FM26 missing features.
“I think we’ve been pretty clear with everyone that it is that, that you can’t expect 20 years worth of quality of life features from a UI to be there in a brand new UI that no one has ever used before,” Jacobson explained. “It’s going to take time for those things to come back. But for a first version of something, it’s an incredibly feature-rich first version that includes things that are way better than what we’ve had in this series before.”
Alongside new issues that will undoubtedly arise, Jacobson explained that not every feature you’re used to will be present in Football Manager 26 for the exact same reason. This is a different game and remaking old features in a completely new engine is a tall task.
“We’re not sitting here, and we never have sat here, and said: ‘everything from FM24 is going to be in FM26’” he explained. “We’ve said quite the opposite, all the way through the last two years when we’ve been blogging stuff. And if that makes people unsure, and I will get told off for saying this by our PR team, but if that makes people unsure we will be releasing a free demo of the game on the day of release.”
While FM26 is a big change, Jacobson is proud of the game that’s been cooked up by the team, especially after the cancellation of last year’s entry. “If you trust us for the game’s that we’ve delivered for the past 30 years, you’re going to love what we’re doing.”
Football Manager 26 releases on PC, MacOS, PlayStation and Xbox on November 4, 2025.
