eFootball, the preview of Konami's new soccer game
eFootball
PES fans were ready, after a recent online beta test Konami had suggested July 21 as the date on which he would make an announcement related - everyone understood - to his popular football series. As expected, today the Japanese company has shown the whole world the evolution of the franchise, which after Winning Eleven and Pro Evolution Soccer changes its name and becomes eFootball. But if fans were ready for the announcement, they probably weren't ready for the revolution that accompanies this title change. With a trailer, some images and little information, Konami has in fact opened the doors of its new way of seeing football, a global football, which must be for everyone, and which for this reason has led eFootball to be a free-to game. -play. In autumn, therefore, owners of PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox One, Series X / S, PC and later Android and iOS will be able to dive into the virtual fields of eFootball for free, being able to enjoy the same experience regardless of the platform. An important decision that leads Konami's football to abandon the old formula that has always required you to buy a new game every year, and takes the first step towards that idea of a constantly updated and enriched platform that for some time many have also been asking for sports games. There are so many details, even more are the unclear elements, and as fans divide and discuss what is undoubtedly a historic moment in the soccer game genre, we gather what we know in our preview of eFootball.A free football
Konami has already said it: to see the gameplay and find out more about the modalities that will make up the playful experience of eFootball we will have to wait until next month, realistically straddling the Gamescom of Cologne. What we could see today was a focus dedicated above all to the way of conceiving Konami's free-to-play, the stages of the first months after launch and those aspects in which the Unreal Engine has improved and modified the gaming experience. . According to the published roadmap, eFootball - which will be a digital-only title - will have several moments in which Konami will publish new free and paid content, a modular approach that will allow fans to add only the content they prefer to the base game.We start in early autumn, when the title will debut in its leanest form with local matches and a small selection of teams in partnership (what happened with the demo in the past few years), while in the following weeks they will be generational match crosses introduced (therefore PS4 vs PS5 and Series X / S vs Xbox One). This path will see the arrival of the first modes and the addition of challenges between different ecosystems in late autumn, allowing PlayStation users to challenge for example Xbox and PC owners, and then go to winter with the cross platform extension, the eSport focus and much more.
eFootball: PES Mobile was a sort of test to experiment with the new eFootball model The goal seems to be on two distinct paths, for the moment called with the provisional names of Online Championships and Team Building Mode. More detailed information is lacking, but it is clear that both are looking towards online competitions between multiple players, with a more traditional mode that will involve existing teams, while the other gives the whole idea of being a FUT-like option. For now, in this roadmap, there is no mention of career mode and the global roster of teams.
Will we see the Master League added in the course of work? Will there be a more or less elaborate career option? These are questions still unanswered and it is not clear if we will see a revolution also from this point of view, but for sure we know that an important element in the growth of the game and in obtaining new content will be the system called Match Pass. Clearly inspired by the Battle Passes popularized by Fortnite, the Match Pass will arrive in late autumn and will allow you to unlock and collect new players by playing eFootball (or, realistically, spending a currency to buy for real money). The roadmap clearly shows how new players will be able to access, but at the moment it is not clear what the restrictions will be and in what modes they will be obtained. In this regard, producer Seitaro Kimura underlined Konami's intention to make eFootball correct and accessible to all players, although we will only be able to evaluate this when the Match Pass works in depth.
Motion Matching
eFootball: the famous Options File to modify teams and characters will be introduced after the launch The other great protagonist of the communication is obviously the use of the Unreal Engine as a basis on which to create the present and the future of eFootball. It is not only a question of graphics, of greater realism of the faces and humanization of the players, but it also concerns the animations and the rendering in terms of feedback of the player's movements. We had the opportunity with the recent matchmaking test to tell you some of our impressions about it and already in today's trailer some of these feelings have been confirmed. Thanks to the Motion Matching technology, eFootball tries to faithfully recreate a whole series of movements and situations that arise from the concept of 1 against 1, quadrupling the number of animations seen in PES 2021. For the occasion Konami has relied on two "exceptional mentors": Piqué and Iniesta (with whom the collaboration has been in place for a few years), but names aside, the goal is to improve the feeling of the game, ball control and offensive and defensive situations.At the level of animations, through Motion Matching, we tried to propose animation during matches that is increasingly consistent with the positioning of the ball and the opponent. What emerged was that the cornerstones on which most worked were ball control and speed dribbling for the attack, and shortening the space towards the ball and timing for the defense. How these elements will impact the game is still early to tell, but if the test a few weeks ago is a valid indicator, some of these new introductions may actually be tangible. Finally, the use of the Unreal Engine also leads to direct and better compatibility between the various platforms: Konami's goal is not only to allow mobile players to challenge console and PC owners, but also to have the exact same experience. , and the scalability of Epic's technology will allow you to appreciate all the progress made so far (and those that will be introduced in the future) on smartphones and tablets. In short, goodbye to the concept of legacy edition.
Konami presented its eFootball, an ambitious project that wants to propose a clear departure from what PES and FIFA had accustomed us to so far. The most impactful idea is certainly the choice of the free-to-play model with the composition of the experience based on the player's wishes. The roadmap presented us with a series of choices that will be explained and analyzed over time since for now we only know the will of a global product (cross play between platforms) and the presence of a rewards system linked to players and objects. in-game (Match Pass). The doubts and questions are many, but it is certain that the future of eFootball has enormous potential.
