FM26 Touch: New Features Revealed

Match Day Drama

Graphically elevated by the move to the Unity engine*, Match Days are where the biggest moments happen in FM26 Touch.

Players move with increased personality as the game incorporates volumetric animations taken from real-life football matches alongside bespoke motion capture, changes to our animation blending and dribbling AI technology. 

It’s not just player movement that’s had an upgrade, though, with enhancements to our on-pitch visuals too. A new pitch shader improves the authenticity of our surfaces, while revamped lighting, new sky effects and improved stadium designs making every match feel different.

Camera angles have been improved too, alongside revamped replays and the new Dynamic highlight setting that adapts the number of highlights you see based on the game situation you’re in. 

Match Days come to life when you’re competing on the biggest stages, and they don’t get much bigger than the Premier League. Now fully-licensed for the first time in the FM series, you’ll experience official Match Day branding alongside official club logos, kits and player photos. 

The Premier League isn’t the only new licence this year, though. There are also three new competitions on the men’s side as well as 14 new leagues to try in women’s football. 

When you’re between highlights, you can keep a closer eye on how the match is progressing thanks to the addition of the 2D pitch view to the Match Overview screen.

Upgraded UI

The User Interface has been upgraded in FM26 Touch. 

Anchored by a new top navigation bar that allows you to flow through the managerial essentials at your pace, you’ll discover a new home screen in the Portal. This is your window to the wider footballing world, providing you with quick access to news, your fixtures, league tables and your messages from your backroom team. 

You’ll notice that there are fewer tiles on each screen in the Touch UI compared to our PC and Console editions, optimised for your navigation on Nintendo Switch™.

Whether you’re a FM newcomer or an experienced campaigner, there are key supporting tools at hand to help you get up to speed with the UI in every career: Bookmarks, FMPedia and Search.

Your Manager, Your Way

Crafting your virtual manager is an essential part of every FM career and in FM26 Touch you’ll discover extensive upgrades to the character creation experience. 

To start, you’ll discover multiple preset character options for you to choose from - all with brand-new hairs, improved faces and enhanced apparel. The apparel is more customisable than ever, with you now able chop and change the tops and bottoms in every outfit and pick different colours for every layer to find the perfect look for you.

With further settings for skin details and cosmetics for all body types, every manager in FM26 Touch feels more alive and unique. 

Once you’ve decided on your look, you’ll shape your background through a couple of questions that define your footballing journey on and off the pitch. First up is defining your reputation from a choice of seven options, ranging from no football experience at all to that of a generational superstar. You’ll then select any Non-Playing Roles you want your manager to have had, from Coaching and Recruitment through to Medical, Punditry or Refereeing. 

Think carefully; these choices shape your reputation and should match the challenge you’re taking on. If you’re stepping in with a proven title-winner, being well-renowned on or off the pitch will be an advantage. But if you’re starting in the lower leagues where expectations are lower, you could position yourself as a total newcomer. 

Advanced Tactical Innovation

Bringing you closer to how real managers set up their teams, FM26 Touch adds new tactical depth with the introduction of separate In and Out of Possession formations. 

When you set up your first tactic, the process is familiar. You’ll begin by choosing a style of play before setting your formations. At each stage, you’ll get recommendations from your backroom team on which style works best with your current squad. 

These formations are accompanied by new player roles and a dynamic visualiser showing how your team behaves in every phase. That level of detail allows you to express more control over how your side plays the beautiful game.

Transformative Transfer Tools

TransferRoom, football’s digital marketplace, is changing the way clubs in real life do transfer deals and it’s now doing the same in FM26 Touch. This is thanks to the introduction of two new tools – Requirements and Pitch Opportunities. 

Requirements are a way for you to communicate directly with every other club in your game world and outline your specific requirements in the transfer market.

Conversely, Pitch Opportunities allows you to see what other clubs in your game world are looking for in the transfer market.

Harness these new tools to shape your title-winning squads season after season. 

Introducing: Women’s Football

You’ll be able to explore all of this season’s new functionality with a greater choice of clubs than ever, as Women’s Football makes its series debut in FM26 Touch. 

Seamlessly joining the men’s game in one footballing ecosystem, FM26 Touch includes 14 playable leagues across 11 nations, including elite competitions like the WSL, NWSL and SOMPO WE League.

The core gameplay experience is similar across men’s and women’s football but there are differences in the women’s game we’ve reflected directly from real-world insights. Some of the most significant differences are contracts, finances and the transfer market, as well as movement and the pace of the game on Match Days.

In each career, you can load just men’s leagues, just women’s leagues or a combination of the two. If you include both, you’re able to move seamlessly between the two and explore new horizons. 

In FM26 Touch, football belongs to you and your vision. It’s time to change the game.

*Visuals may vary depending on user hardware.