PES Officially Renamed to eFootball, Going Free to Play, Cross-Platform - Trailer & Details

[Steve_OS]

Konami has officially renamed their Pro Evolution Soccer (PES) series to eFootball. The announcement reveals the...

Written By: Steve Noah

Click here to view the article.

[villabraves]

PES Officially Renamed to eFootball, Free to Play - Trailer & Details

Sorry but that trailer leaves me feeling this is a huge own goal. Cross platform may sound good but with that comes a real sense that the game will be dumbed down, as not all platforms have the same capability. If the same game is going to be compatible for mobile devices as well as consoles and PC, then straightaway the missing button controls from the ‘New Football’ beta recently released are going to affect the gameplay. Not convinced offline modes, especially Master League, are going to get the love they need. Going down the 1v1 road really does concern me because if it’s adapted in the same way that EA did with FIFA, and teammate AI is neglected, resulting in teammates literally standing still or meandering around aimlessly, it will kill this game too. Obviously this is just the initial trailer but it’s done absolutely nothing for me personally to get excited for about the new ‘game’.


Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports

[adoptedscouse]

Re: PES Officially Renamed to eFootball, Going Free to Play - Trailer & Details

If it’s true what people are saying it’s online football & they have dropped offline stuff, why on earth have teams like Atalanta & Roma signed exclusive deals with them. Who’s going to play as Atalanta on a online only football game, literally ever game will be PSG vs PSG.

I liked playing Brazilian league offline as only place I could & I now fear that’s gone as well. I really hope there is still offline modes, I just can’t see them being any good as they won’t make money.


Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports

[villabraves]

Re: PES Officially Renamed to eFootball, Going Free to Play - Trailer & Details

If it’s true what people are saying it’s online football & they have dropped offline stuff, why on earth have teams like Atalanta & Roma signed exclusive deals with them. Who’s going to play as Atalanta on a online only football game, literally ever game will be PSG vs PSG.

I liked playing Brazilian league offline as only place I could & I now fear that’s gone as well. I really hope there is still offline modes, I just can’t see them being any good as they won’t make money.


Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports

I think offline modes will be added as DLC’s after initial release is my understanding from this but I fear offline game modes will be heading for the chop in the future. Can’t see them getting the time needed to provide a great gaming experience I’m afraid. Really sucks if this is the way ahead.


Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports

[RoyceDa59]

Re: PES Officially Renamed to eFootball, Going Free to Play - Trailer & Details

This is beyond disappointing to me. Cross platform between mobile and consoles is a huge red flag for me.

[jrnlgrn]

Re: PES Officially Renamed to eFootball, Going Free to Play - Trailer & Details

Umm what?


Well I don't think this game is for me free or not.


Also from the trailer the players look good but the movement looks like ****. My guess would be option files and master league are dead. I'm guessing the team building mode is going to be the new MyClub and that's what the online league is about.

[villabraves]

Re: PES Officially Renamed to eFootball, Going Free to Play - Trailer & Details

Umm what?


Well I don't think this game is for me free or not.


Also from the trailer the players look good but the movement looks like ****. My guess would be option files and master league are dead. I'm guessing the team building mode is going to be the new MyClub and that's what the online league is about.

Spooney just confirmed ML will be a DLC purchase post launch. This is basically a f*** you to offline players. Looks like I’m going to have to just keep playing 21 and play MLBTS more. Really pi$$ed off about this!


Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports

[Ronoko]

Re: PES Officially Renamed to eFootball, Going Free to Play - Trailer & Details

RIP PES. Sad day indeed. Add soccer games to the list of team sport games I won't play.

[PhillyPhanatic14]

Re: PES Officially Renamed to eFootball, Going Free to Play - Trailer & Details

Crazy that a game built from the ground up can look so horrible. The players are skating around on the surface with no connection to the ground. Graphics don't look nearly as good as what the unreal engine is capable of.

"Free to play" had me intrigued, but this doesn't look like it's worth the space on my hard drive. Not to mention having no modes at launch. Very strange gaming model.

[Raiseup]

Re: PES Officially Renamed to eFootball, Going Free to Play - Trailer & Details

It doesn't look great in terms of a generational leap. The new UI is way better, but the colours are wild aggressive.

I'd heard the rumours about going free to play so I'm not shocked. They were right about this being a big announcement though. This might be the generation where I move away from big ticket sports games entirely -- Fifa, Madden, NBA 2k and now this all look ridiculously underwhelming considering the power of the next gen systems.

BUT all that said, as it's free I'll give it a download. With just 9 teams and online prioritised, it probably won't stay on my system for long.

[PhillyGuy11826]

Re: PES Officially Renamed to eFootball, Going Free to Play - Trailer & Details

The Unreal Engine announcement last year had me seriously considering to switch from FIFA to PES. After today, I just pre-ordered FIFA 22

[aderow]

Re: PES Officially Renamed to eFootball, Going Free to Play - Trailer & Details

Somewhere between five and seven years ago, I was talking to mate back in uni and telling him one of fears; that sports gaming was moving towards a place where offline may eventually be removed entirely and I wasn't ready to face that reality. PES 2017 was actually my first PES since 2009. I immediately started a BAL save, as that was my favorite mode, to find out that it, not only, lacked a few features I actually enjoyed in FIFA player career mode (the ability to control attack levels as the captain, the ability to subbed out on request), but it completely lacked stat and career tracking; it only recorded your goals, assists, and appearance where as BAL in 2009 recorded everyone from goals to cards to awards to finishing position in every competition you played in. Every year it seemingly got worse. To the point I no longer play BAL and now play fixed cursor ML in 2021 update.

My first reaction to the announcement was probably similar to yours; horror and confusion. But now that I have had an hour to think about it, honestly, I am not against the model. I'm not against F2P. But it's the implication that gets me. Honestly, for PES, F2P actually is a great idea. Gives more people, who otherwise wouldn't, an opportunity to give it a try. And I think a lot of people will enjoy it. At the end of the day, I would love for more people to find something new that they enjoy. Becoming a live service game may mean ditching the traditional yearly cycle which would be brilliant. Less rigid deadlines may actually mean more time actually developing the game. It's possible down the road we end up with a solid product that all people can enjoy because it's free..........as long as you like online and competitive modes.

Online and competitive are the priorities, but good lord it is concerning as hell that there's no mention of BAL or ML or anything offline in their 'roadmap'. I'm sure more information on their future modes will eventually be released, but no answer is sometimes more powerful than an answer. The roadmap shows online leagues mode and a team building mode, cross gen, cross plat, and competitive gaming. It's like Konami is telling us loud and clear that's what they want us to be playing. And that concerns me. Will there be some sort of offline offering? I believe so but it'll happen in one of two ways; it'll become somehow more barebones than it is now, given the greater emphasis on online modes or, as I mentioned earlier, fewer stricter deadlines means more time to flesh out an offline experience.

But the truth though is I have no reason to believe that the latter is what will happen. Given everything I've seen the last few years in my return to PES. Given the glitched stats I have in BAL 2017 that didn't record half my international caps and goals. Given the awful AI I have endured on and off the pitch in both BAL and ML over the last 5 years. And given offline's noticeable absence from the roadmap. I fear that conversation I had with my mate has actually become reality for what is my favorite game about my favorite sport.

[jrnlgrn]

Re: PES Officially Renamed to eFootball, Going Free to Play - Trailer & Details

I hate to say it but if offline gets the short end of things as I think it will I hope this f2p model fails in a big way. I fear if it ends up successful other companies will definitely take note and knee cap their offline modes or remove them completely. They have no incentive to keep them unless the are contractually obligated to. That's assuming the offline modes aren't good. They could turn out to be solid and we're worrying about nothing.

With the lack of concrete mentions of offline though I'm not optimistic.

Unless they fix the midfield tracking back in FIFA that's a non starter as well, for me at least.

Sent from my Pixel 4a (5G) using Operation Sports mobile app

[ch46647]

Re: PES Officially Renamed to eFootball, Going Free to Play - Trailer & Details

Wow. Seems to me Konami is ready to retire their soccer franchise. I would expect this F2P model to last about a year or two before they stop updating and inevitably cancel game.

[Northernwolf]

Re: PES Officially Renamed to eFootball, Going Free to Play - Trailer & Details

RIP PES. You were a weird challenger for FIFA. Sometimes you outdid yourself but your time was slowly coming to an end. These last seasons were the final death blow to a decent rivalry. I guess Konami got to greedy in the end and nixed the entire thing.

Too bad for Atalanta, Roma Juventus and Serie B who are now stuck with their rights in a F2P game.

I was hoping for more opposition this upcoming year or so, but I guess FIFA now owns all footballers. What a bloody sad day this is.