Football Manager 2026 Developers Confirm Beta Following Epic Leak
- The Epic Games Store listed Football Manager 2026 as available from Oct. 23
- Official release date of Nov. 4 remains without change
- Epic Games Store leaked FM2024 Beta with accurate date in 2023
- Fans concerned with narrow crunch window
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Epic Games Store Suggests Beta Access On Oct. 23
Gamers who pre-ordered Football Manager 2026 on the Epic Games Store noticed that it was showing as available as of Oct. 23, 2025 in their game library. This accidental leak has users on both X and Reddit up in flames as this would leave very little room for fixes before the game’s official release date.
FM26 has been announced to go live on Nov. 4 on Xbox, PlayStation 5, and PC from launch with other platforms, like Nintendo Switch, confirmed for release on Dec. 4. Should the Beta test date prove to be correct, it will leave Sports Interactive just a few days of serious crunch to get the game out on time.
“Understandably, over the past 24-hours there’s been increased speculation about the Advanced Access Beta. We’re just finalising the details and we’ll have a concrete date to share with you next week. We’re nearly there,” the developers said on the Football Manager official X account on Oct. 16.
In 2023, prior to the release of Football Manager 2024, the Epic Games Store showed that game as available from Oct. 19, which turned out to be the Beta test version for those who had pre-ordered the game. FM24 was subsequently released on Nov. 6, 2023.
Reviewer Quick To Express Concerns
A reviewer with access to test the game said that there is plenty to be excited about in the upcoming sports title, but he also pointed out that there are many struggles with the UI.
“I think FM fans are in for a shock with some of the new UI. And I’ve some reservations about how some of that new UI actually works, too, beyond the newness,” Chris Tapsell wrote on Bluesky on Oct. 16 after playing the game for a day.
This is what has put the official release date of FM26 into question. Also, the phrasing “Advanced Access Beta” is a bit too vague for everyone’s liking.
“The fact they don’t have a release date for a Beta of a game that is supposed to be releasing in less than three weeks is very concerning,” AnfieldAura wrote on X. “Advanced Access Beta sounds like a Beta that plays more like an Alpha build.”
Last year in August, Sports Interactive canceled Football Manager 2025 citing poor quality and not wanting players to waste their money on an unsatisfactory product.
“We know that a lot of people are upset about it, but we did it for the right reasons,” Sports Interactive Studio Director, Miles Jacobson, told BBC then.
“I wasn’t happy with the quality of the game, and I wasn’t prepared for people to be going out and spending their hard-earned money on something that wasn’t good enough.”
Sports Interactive’s FM26 To Debut Women’s Football
According to the game developers, the introduction of women’s football is backed by the most comprehensive database of players of its kind. This new world of possibilities is said to seamlessly integrate into the Football Manager ecosystem.
“Setting Sports Interactive up for the next 20 years and beyond was an enormous undertaking but I couldn’t be prouder of the efforts of the whole team over the past two years,” Jacobson said in a press release on Sept. 10 this year when the official release date was revealed.
“FM26 represents a landmark release in our quest to produce football management perfection and the whole studio is really excited to share it with the world.”
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