Free to play and cross in the center of the new soccer game experience

Fans have been waiting for him for more than a year, in recent days some rumors have been waiting for her new nature, and now everything is confirmed. Pro Evolution Soccer, for all PES, changes its name and appearance. Today Konami introduced eFootball: This will be the name of their upcoming soccer simulation for the Japanese home, and the revolution isn’t just in name. Hoping to track the successes of Call of Duty: Warzone and Fortnite too, and Football will be free: it can be downloaded by everyone for free, regardless of platform. Whether on new generation consoles, PS5 and Series X/S, and older, PS4 and One X/S, on PC and even on mobile, the new Konami game will be free to download and play in some of its modes. Like all free games, in fact, the development house will focus a lot on microtransactions and downloadable content (DLC) to generate revenue.

For now, there’s only a simple roadmap available for getting closer to the product, with a promise of a date at the end of August for more details (and fan questions aplenty: What’s going to happen to the Master League? The series is still out there? For the writer, they’re likely to be Among the Unlockable Paid Content). The release, scheduled for early fall, will allow players to challenge each other either offline or online, with a first cross-play approach, or the ability to challenge a friend or opponent with a different gaming platform. Especially. Initially, this feature will only be available between consoles of the same family (PS5 user vs PS4 user and Series X/S user vs X/S user one), then it will be extended over the winter to PCs and mobile devices. Konami’s goal is to be able to allow online matches between users of all potential platforms and consoles. In all this, the transition to a new graphics engine is of great importance: after abandoning the now-tired Fox Engine, the choice fell on a custom version of Unreal Engine 4, ign.it reports. The Epic graphics engine, which has long been used by many development houses, lends itself particularly well to the idea that eFootball is fast, fast, and “scalable” based on the platform and its strength. Konami ensures that users who have already embraced the next generation will be able to enjoy the allowable differences and improvements to the great computing power of the new consoles.

Among the few details that Seitaro Kimura provided for IGN, we find a focus on dribbling and the movement of players on the field. For the series producer, singles play is the basis of football, which is why they used tips and movements in real time thanks to advanced motion capture technology for athletes of the caliber of Andres Iniesta and Gerard Pique. Shooting is now entrusted to the console’s R2/RT switches, and Kimura ensures that there will be plenty of options for full control of the ball and movements in the race. The defensive stage also introduces several new features, such as specific buttons for using the body (to defend or compete against the ball) and for notation.

Pending more details, which will arrive during the summer as expected, the choice made by Konami is brave and almost bound by the age and financial situation of the Japanese house. eFootball will be a platform for all fans, which will be expanded and updated over time following feedback from the community and fans. The world of football simulators has been outdated for years and a bit inclined to modernize, eFootball represents a real revolution for the genre. In the fall, we may begin to understand whether it is a right or a risky choice.

A little note for Rossoneri fans: AC Milan is currently fully licensed, name, kit, crest and stadium, only in the FIFA series. In the PES 2021 season update, the Rossoneri resides under the name Milano RN, with a public stadium and kit. Everything was easily resolved by applying the so-called “FO”, custom files created by the ever-active PES community that for many years solved the problem associated with the few licenses purchased by Konami entering badges, names and uniforms in the game. Logic makes us think that the series’ famous editor will also be present at eFootball, but the news that needs to be confirmed or not is confirmed by Konami in the coming weeks.

click Who is the For the eFootball promotion, coming this year on PlayStation®5, PlayStation®4, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, Windows 10 (PC), Steam (PC), and iOS, and Android.

by Manuel del Vecchio