FM27: An Elevated Match Day Atmosphere

A new start for your supporters

The beating heart of every football club are their match-going fans. Through thick and thin, rain and shine, they turn out in great numbers to celebrate your club’s successes or bemoan your shortcomings.

Combining your feedback with our own internal reviews, we placed a significant emphasis for FM27 on improving the visual quality of crowds and their performance levels.

Individually, the crowd models have been overhauled to better showcase each fan’s emotions. How they dress, how they react, how they celebrate – all come together to provide a vastly improved and more contextual stadium atmosphere.

You’ll also notice an additional level of depth in the stands. The fans now sport the shirts of their heroes on the pitch, with various layers of apparel depending on the weather, climate and time of year. On top of that, expect to see club flags being waved across the terraces, leaving you in no doubt as to whether you’re home or away.

Whether it’s the build up to kick off or the thrill of a late equaliser, the energy of the crowd should better match the action on the pitch. To reflect that, we’ve introduced changes to both the mood of the crowd and the audio you hear during matches. A bank of more varied crowd audio to better reflect the level you are managing at ensures you really feel the difference between a mid-week local game and a primetime Premier League title decider.

Soak in your surroundings and feel more part of the match day experience, with the sights and sounds of the crowds making every match feel more like the real thing.

Stadiums that feel more like yours

With the crowd now raring to go, the stadiums they’re filling up have been enhanced too.

FM27 will bring with it a new age of in-game stadium designs, with the largest variety of stands, corners, and roofs to date. Not only that, but you’ll notice improvements to the shading and colour variation across the stadium structures themselves, making each away day feel that bit more distinct.

Seasonality doesn’t just apply to the people in the stadium. The time of year is now better reflected in the surrounding environment too, helping each fixture feel grounded in the football calendar.

The colour of the grass, the trees, and other outdoor features will change throughout the year, whether you’re heading into the first signs of spring or the depths of winter. These updates are about giving you a stronger sense of time and place, tying the world around you to the evolution of your save.

More representative local environments

Wherever you’re playing, a 3pm kick-off on a December Saturday should feel distinct from one kicking off at the same time in the middle of August. Likewise, a game in December might kick off to bright sunshine, but by the final whistle you could expect the floodlights to be on.

To better reflect this, we’ve built a brand-new time of day system. Now, you’ll get to experience the sun setting over your players, all while the lighting, shadows, and weather, dynamically shift throughout the course of the 90 minutes. It’s a visual cue that mirrors the action playing out on the pitch, making every match feel like a real-life event, instead of a moment frozen in time.

That increased sense of time and place also comes from the upgrades to pitch variations. You’ll notice the different pitch types you’d come to expect during your away-day travels, and the level of pitch degradation now suitably matches up with the extremes of the weather itself.

Pitches will now change with the weather too. Not only has the particle system improved to give rain and snow more clear visual definition, the pitch maps under-the-hood have been reviewed so that when it rains, the pitch will look wetter. When it snows, the match may kick off with a freshly swept pitch, but as your players chase victory, they’ll be navigating a fresh layer of powder.

The stadium, the environment, and the crowd all set the tone for the thrill of match day, but with more authentic playing conditions every match day feels like it’s unfolding in front of you.

The theatre of the big occasion

Football’s untold potential for drama means that no two matches ever feel the same. Neither should those final moments before kick-off as the teams walk out on to the pitch.

For FM27, we wanted to better capture this pre-match energy by developing more dynamic and engaging cutscenes. Wherever you’re playing and whatever is at stake, the build-up to each match should feel like its own occasion and to achieve this, we’ve redefined the technology behind our cutscenes.

Each shot in the cutscene now has multiple camera angles at its disposal. These will vary based on several factors including game significance, stadium, and location; meaning that the same cutscene sequence can play out in hundreds of different combinations.

This is especially true across our licensed competitions, where you'll see a unique combination of shots for each pre-match build up or triumphant trophy lift.

These dynamic cutscenes and pitch close-ups will reveal 3D textured grass, and cuts to the crowds may reveal unique pre-match tifos once you hit the level of immortality that every manager strives for.

More dynamic cutscenes breathe new life into those final pre-match moments, and bring together the enhancements to crowds, stadiums, environments and more to provide a viewing experience that makes every fixture feel more unique.

A new generation of player models

Just like their counterparts in the crowd, the player and manager models themselves have been overhauled from top to bottom.

Players will now look and feel more like athletes. We’ve integrated musculature to their bodies in their calves and forearms, which will all be prevalent in the match cutscenes and highlights themselves.

We’ve even added in hair physics so that from a granular level, you’ll be able to see the movement of their unique hairstyles as they dribble and sprint.

These additions combine to make the players feel more alive and dynamic. On top of that, we’ve got a deeper ensemble of changes to player movement and speed which you’ll hear about in the next match drop.

FM27’s Match Day Experience delivers a greater sense of believability, refreshing your experience as you contemplate your next tactical tweak in the dugout.

The world you find yourself in has been revamped and optimised, from the crowd models to the pillars of your main stand. Now more than ever, you’ll truly feel that you’re riding the rollercoaster that is the matchday, living through the highs and lows alongside your most loyal supporters.

Next, you’ll hear more about the enhancements we’ve made to player behaviours during the match day, and the changes to expect in our levelled-up Match Engine.