Pro Evolution Soccer to become free-to-play eFootball

Konami has introduced one other dramatic change to its long-running soccer franchise. The Professional Evolution Soccer (PES) branding has now been dropped solely in favor of the eFootball model. The franchise will now even be transferring to a free-to-play mannequin.

Konami confirmed that it is going to be launching the sport later this 12 months as a digital-only product that it plans to develop upon over time. It is a big shift from the yearly launch mannequin that the franchise has caught to for thus lengthy, however in actuality, it is smart if the video games are to retain followers in the long term.

The brand new sport will nonetheless be developed by the PES group, Successful Eleven. The sport can also be a rebuild of the normal PES mannequin, however this time within the Unreal Engine. It’ll be launching throughout all main platforms comparable to PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Sequence X/S, and PC this 12 months, coming to cellular units a while after that. The title will help crossplay between all platforms, although cellular performance could differ.

The primary roadmap Konami has revealed reveals common characteristic updates, on-line leagues, esports tournaments, a group constructing mode, and even cellular controller help, all mentioned to hit the sport earlier than winter 2021.

As for increasing the sport, future additions will likely be made by way of non-obligatory DLC that gamers should purchase. That is precisely how most large MMOs mannequin their content material. Whether or not Konami will cost for one thing easy like group participant database updates and upgrades to every 12 months’s seasons stays to be seen.

The sport will supply a improbable different to EA’s FIFA Final Group. Konami is pitching its sport as honest and simple to get into, whereas EA’s entry is understood to power gamers to buy loot packing containers and has been condemned by many.

FIFA will, in fact, retain many of the main soccer licenses. Nevertheless, Konami’s entry could have FC Barcelona, Manchester United, Juventus and FC Bayern, in addition to particular gamers like Neymar Jr. and Lionel Messi as model ambassadors.

Konami’s soccer sequence has been on maintain since 2001 previous to the rebranding to eFootball in recent times. The video games had been all the time competing towards a large with FIFA, however some entries, comparable to PES 3, are nonetheless thought to be much better than the FIFA titles that had been launched on the similar time.

Successful Eleven has the pedigree to make a improbable soccer sport that may go the gap and retain a participant base for years to return. Nevertheless, many will likely be disenchanted that there isn’t going to be a brand new bodily launch with a canopy star annually.