The Pro Evolution Soccer series is ditching its long-standing name in favour of eFootball. The series, often abbreviated as PES, is beloved the world over under a number of different names (like Winning Eleven, in Japan).

Publisher Konami has previously experimented with the eFootball branding. With the series going free-to-play across all territories, eFootball unites the various versions under one all-encompassing umbrella. Unlike PES, eFootball succinctly conveys its purpose – electronic football – for easily recognisable, world-wide branding.

Free annual updates

Going fully free-to-play is obviously a bold move – but not entirely without precedent. Konami has contemplated the idea before, and released ‘lite’ versions of PES. These were free, but were online-only with bare essential functionality. PES mobile’s towering player counts likely influenced the decision, with the full-priced console counterparts paling in comparison.

Konami’s done with the annual release cycle, instead treating eFootball as an ever-expanding platform. No more slight alterations to the established formula and rosters updates demanding a whole new release.

This free-to-play platform will receive regular post-launch support, powered by paid DLC and controversial microtransactions. It’ll get free annual updates to address season changes, with additional game modes locked behind optional purchases.

Konami has released a roadmap and promised a more in-depth discussion surrounding the game’s mechanics and monetisation soon. For now, the launch content is looking a little thin – only nine officially licensed teams in local matches, with online leagues and team building modes coming later down the road as, presumably, paid DLC.

We’re intrigued to see how Konami’s contentious rival EA responds with FIFA, which is already overflowing with microtransactions, despite retaining a hefty price tag. Will die-hard fans finally convert to eFootball, or does EA expect people to continually fork over their hard-earned cash?

Cross-platform matches

In early Autumn eFootball will be coming (digital-only) to PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One and PC, with mobile versions following soon after. No signs of Nintendo Switch yet. By Winter, full cross-platform matches (console, PC and mobile) will be possible.

Don’t worry, the game’s intricate physics and controls won’t be dumbed-down to accommodate the lowest common denominator touch screen controls. If you want to cross-play on mobile, you’ll need to hook up a controller.

New engine

Up until this point, the series has used Konami’s proprietary, in-house Fox Engine. Interestingly, this engine was originally developed by Kojima Productions for use in Metal Gear Solid V.

The engine’s development was an involved endeavour spanning several years. After Konami’s well-documented fall out with Kojima and subsequently seizing production on most of their gaming catalogue, Konami saw fit to repurpose the engine for the PES series to recuperate their significant investment.

After several years of using the engine (since PES 2014) they’re finally moving on from and embracing the industry favourite Unreal Engine with eFootball. The technology transition allows them to utilise cutting-edge techniques like motion matching.

Similar to FIFA 22’s highlight feature HyperMotion, motion matching dynamically adjusts animations in real-time to always produce the most realistic result possible. This results in more than four times as many animations. The impressive technical underpinnings of Unreal Engine also facilitated a complete overhaul of player expressions. Unreal Engine is also receiving AMD’s FidelityFX Super Resolution.

Most importantly, Unreal Engine means the developers can port eFootball to as many platform as possible with no-compromises feature parity. Whether you’re playing on a high-spec gaming PC or a smart phone, no features will be cut-down or outright removed. FIFA could learn a thing or two!

More free-to-play games to come?

Going free-to-play is certainly an interesting choice. We’re seeing other big-name publishers like Ubisoft moving towards free-to-play with the recently announced Tom Clancy’s XDefiant.

With gamers desperately trying to secure high-cost consoles and graphics cards, does abandoning traditionally priced games make sense?

Perhaps these publishers are more interested in exploiting the untapped potential of burgeoning markets like South America and India. In these territories, a console’s cost is prohibitively expensive, so smartphones are their only gaming opportunity.

Lowering the barrier to entry means more players, and of course, more microtransactions.