14 Aug, 2025
Sports Interactive’s new FM 26 trailer showed some huge new changes to their pre-match cutscenes. We dive in to what we found!
Sports Interactive has revealed a glimpse of the new pre-match cutscenes in Football Manager 26… and they’re a pretty huge upgrade on the last game. Take a look below at some of stills taken from the long awaited update and trailer that Sports Interactive put out yesterday.
These are “not final” shots we are seeing in the trailer, but we get a cool peak at some of the pre-match and match-day changes that come with FM having official Premier League license, which were supposedly in FM25 before it was canned. The trailer also gives fans a taste of what to expect with Football Manager’s move to the new Unity engine for FM26.
Expectations skyrocketed after the London-based studio decided to can Football Manager 25 after a string of delays. However, earlier this week, the team gave the community a small glimpse of what to expect in the next game, with a screenshot showing what appears to be vastly improved pre-game cutscenes.
Compared side-by-side with FM24, as you can see from the image courtesy of Out of Context Football Manager, it’s night and day in terms of detail. Crowd volume has been dialed up, a far cry from the sparse, bland crowds typically associated with the series. Colours are also far more vibrant, while the pitch itself looks far more realistic. A closer look reveals a much more varied array of character models also. In the last game it was easy to spot the same NPC dotted around a stadium, now, though it’ll be far more difficult.
“If there’s one thing EA FC does better than Football Manager, it’s the graphics. So when the new Football Manager 26 teaser came out, the fact it’s reminiscent of EA FC, is a great thing” said our resident Football Manager expert Billy. 90% of the player base use 3D so a graphical revolution is vital for the future of the game. Am I excited for these upgrades? Absolutely. But am I more excited just about the fact that we’ve got an actual new game added to the Football Manager franchise in the next few months? Oh yes!
There’s still not concrete FM 26 release date, however all eyes are pointing towards November. Until now, Sports Interactive has remained tight-lipped on the upcoming game, but earlier this week released a teaser saying that the ‘Match Day first look’ was ‘coming soon’. If you’re looking for something to do while you wait for it, why not give Fantasy Football a go? Before you do, check out our list of the best FPL names on the internet, then have a read of the FPL basics.
