Football Manager fans slam 'unplayable' FM26 after latest delay

The release of Football Manager 26 continues to face challenges as developers announced a delay in a planned update, leaving 200 issues unresolved that were set to be fixed. Creators Sports Interactive have faced new criticism from gamers who argue that parts of the game are "unplayable".

After confirming plans to release a new update this week, Sports Interactive has had to retract due to a "knock-on performance issue". A representative from the studio's community team posted on its official forums on Tuesday, November 18: "Tomorrow (November 19) will see the next Football Manager 26 game update rolled out via the Steam Public Beta Track. Following successful testing, this will then be made available in full on Steam, Epic, and Microsoft Stores later this week.

"The update (26.0.6) includes more than 200 fixes and tweaks, including; tweaks to player wage demands, the option to select an FPS limit within 'Preferences', and changes as to how European coefficient points are awarded. As always, a more in-depth change list will be provided upon full release."

The post further added: "Separately to this week's update, we wanted to inform you that the team are working continuously behind the scenes on the Match Engine. More specific details on updates in that area will follow later this week."

On Wednesday, November 19, just before midday, Sports Interactive (SI) confirmed that a problem "may affect" the release of the update to the public beta track on Steam. By 5.30pm, the update was delayed as developers were still grappling with the issue, reports the Mirror.

Fans expressed their disappointment at the decision and FM26's bug-ridden release. One disgruntled fan tweeted: "It's incredibly frustrating to pay for a game that clearly wasn't ready. It's been 2 weeks since the official release and FM is still full of major issues.

"The online mode is literally unplayable, and you can't even deliver an update on the day it's promised. This is unacceptable."

Twitch streamer Nerdphonic, who showcases gameplay, criticised the decision-making over the game as "insane". He added that Sports Interactive are "continually not learning lessons" in terms of communication with the playerbase.

The frustration was also palpable on Reddit. One user wrote: "Even the most optimistic have to admit that this has been a terrible release."

Another described their experience with FM26 as "honestly exhausting", having encountered a bug during their save with FC Barcelona. A third asked: "How many more own goals can SI kick?".

In their original post on November 18, Sports Interactive indicated that the console version of the game would be updated by Friday, November 21. Further updates are expected for the Touch and Mobile versions.

The post stated: "On Friday (November 21) an update will be coming to Football Manager 26 Console. Subject to the submissions process, updates for both Football Manager 26 Touch and Football Manager 26 Mobile will also come early next week."