PES is now eFootball, and eFootball will be Free-to-Play

The Soccer rival game to EA's FIFA goes directly the opposite way of its rival, rebranding from PES to eFootball, and going completely free-to-play.

Ever wondered why sports games come out once a year with gradual improvements but with full-game costs? Did you ever hate it? Well, Konami seeks to rectify that in their PES, or eFootball series.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jzd7OpCHCi0

Formerly known in the West as Pro Evolution Soccer or PES, and in Japan as Winning Eleven, Konami rebrands the game as eFootball. But apart from simply revealing a rebranded name, more things are coming for PES/eFootball.

The most important change comes in the game's engine. Formerly running in Konami's FOX Engine, PES/eFootball will now be running on an Unreal Engine 4-based engine. Secondly, Konami will be doing away with yearly releases. Instead, after the release of this year's eFootball, that's the last game release from the series we could expect for the foreseeable future.

PES/eFootball will release simultaneously this Fall on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X. An Android and iOS version will come later. Meanwhile, Konami refused to comment on a potential Nintendo Switch version. By Holiday 2021, all versions of the game will feature cross-platform functionality, with all versions being identical to each other.

Now, when it comes to content, PES/eFootball will launch with an exhibition mode with 9 clubs. Future game modes will be available as purchasable DLCs. There's no news yet on its FIFA Ultimate Team equivalent – MyClub. The same goes for the season mode Master League. On top of all these things, PES/eFootball will have free seasonal content releases. These content updates will rectify roster changes, among other changes. This is a big change, and we're excited to see how well eFootball will compete with EA's FIFA moving forward.