Konami has announced that Pro Evolution Soccer is no more, and that its long-running football series has a new name and focus. The venerable japanese developer’s football games began under the names of Winning 11 (International Superstar Soccer abroad) and then from 2001 the name was Pro Evolution Soccer, which for a long time and particularly in the 2000s was simply a much better game than FIFA. Konami’s been using the eFootball branding alongside PES for a while, but now it’s just going to be eFootball.
The annual release cycle has been binned, too. Instead eFootball will be a free-to-play ‘football platform’ fuelled by DLC, launching this Autumn on PC. It’s been built on Unreal Engine and features crossplay with console and mobile players. Mobile players, in case you’re wondering, will only be allowed to crossplay with a controller.
The press release explains the DLC model “Local matches featuring FC Barcelona, Juventus, FC Bayern, Manchester United and others will be available, for free, at launch. In the future, certain game modes will be sold as optional DLC, giving players the freedom to build an experience that follows their interests.”
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In Konami’s reveal, it emphasises the overhaul it believes it’s made with one-on-one encounters. The video above features footballing gods like Lionel Messi and Andres Iniesta talking about dribbling and decision-making, intercut with eFootball footage showing what’s called the ‘motion matching’ animation system.
This sounds kind of similar to what EA’s doing with FIFA 22 and what it calls ‘HyperMotion’, with one big exception. HyperMotion is exclusive to the new consoles and won’t feature in the PC version, while eFootball’s PC version is the full-flavoured big boy. Motion matching “converts the vast range of movements that players make on the pitch into a series of animations, selecting the most accurate one in real-time. The system provides more than four times as many animations as before, achieving highly realistic movement. ‘Motion Matching’ will be utilised across all eFootball platforms.
“Starting with the strong foundations of Unreal Engine, which has allowed us to massively overhaul player expression, we’ve made a number of modifications to virtually create a new football game engine that will power eFootball for years to come. By working closely with elite footballers, eFootball delivers our most tense and realistic gameplay to date.” says Seitaro Kimura, the series producer and a longtime PES developer.
Notable is that Konami has abandoned its own in-house FOX engine for eFootball, which is clearly capable of producing magnificent games but feels like it’s been somewhat under-utilised. The platform approach means eFootball will just be constantly updated rather than having new versions, with larger updates happening simultaneously with the start of major football seasons and tournaments.
At launch, however, eFootball looks like it’ll be a little sparse. The roadmap shows there’ll be 9 clubs to play as in exhibition matches, with other modes arriving later and presumably as paid-for DLC. There’s also what looks like a battle pass called a match pass, but no mention of series features like MyClub (PES’s FIFA Ultimate Team) or the career mode yet. You will, however, be able to customise and share teams as PES has always allowed. [PC Gamer]
