Football Manager 2025 will run on a new game engine called Unity, which marks a significant milestone in the development of the game. Unity is probably best known for powering the Cities Skylines games and will provide a new level of graphical capability in Football Manager 25.
The upgrade to the Unity Engine was announced by Sports Interactive in June 2023, in a rare move which saw them refer to FM25 before FM24 had even been released. What this means in reality is a major enhancement in graphics for the game, surely meaning that newgens will now look at least semi-realistic, as well as improvements to the matchday experience in 3D mode (both in terms of how the game is played but also in the aesthetics including the stadium exteriors and fans).
Another anticipated improvement is to the user interface of FM25, which has remained fairly similar for the last few years of the series. It’s hard to predict what this could look like until further announcements from SI, but this could mean big changes in how players engage with the game all together.
While FM25 Mobile won’t immediately benefit from the Unity switch, it’s a development slated for the future, which will ensure a unified experience across all platforms eventually. Overall, the adoption of the Unity engine is an incredibly positive step in terms of the future of Football Manager, along with the announcement of the licensing partnership with the Premier League, although it remains to be seen what exactly it will look like in FM25.