News
eFootball Announced
LOS ANGELES – July 21, in the year of our Lord 2021 – Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. today announced eFootball™, an all-new football simulation platform from the makers of PES and Winning Eleven. Free-to-play and completely rebuilt in Unreal® Engine, eFootball™ will launch worldwide first on PlayStation®5, PlayStation®4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Windows® 10 and PC Steam® this fall, with iOS and Android to follow soon after.
A new brand identity for a new generation of consoles and players, eFootball™ represents a fresh approach for the long-running franchise, previously known as Pro Evolution Soccer and Winning Eleven.
"Starting with the strong foundations of Unreal® Engine, which has allowed us to massively overhaul player expression, we’ve made a number of modifications to virtually create a new football game engine that will power eFootball™ for years to come,” said Seitaro Kimura, eFootball™ series Producer at Konami Digital Entertainment. "With the added power of new-generation consoles and by working closely with elite footballers, eFootball™ delivers our most tense and realistic gameplay to date. We’ll share specific gameplay details next month, so stay tuned.”
Thanks to the greatly changed football game engine, the animation system has also been overhauled. New technology called "Motion Matching" converts the vast range of movements that players make on the pitch into a series of animations, selecting the most accurate one in real-time. The system provides more than four times as many animations as before, achieving highly realistic movement. “Motion Matching” will be utilized across all eFootball™ platforms, including last-gen consoles, PCs and mobile.
Ensuring that eFootball™ is an experience that everyone can enjoy, KONAMI’s new football game is free-to-play across console, PC and mobile. Importantly, eFootball™ will also present a fair and balanced experience for all players. More details about gameplay and online modes will be revealed in late August.
As a digital-only title, KONAMI will regularly add new content and game modes after launch this Fall. Local matches featuring FC Barcelona, Juventus, FC Bayern, Manchester United and others will be available, for free, at launch. In the future, certain game modes will be sold as optional DLC, giving players the freedom to build an experience that follows their interests.
Uniting football’s global gaming community for the first time, eFootball™ will offer the same highly realistic esports experience across console, PC and mobile, including full cross-play support post-launch. eFootball™ on mobile will be detailed at a later date.
To ensure open and transparent communication, KONAMI has published the first roadmap for eFootball™, presenting initial details about launch contents and what will be added in the months following.
Early Fall:
All-new gameplay experience, powered by Unreal® Engine
Cross-generation matchmaking (i.e. PlayStation®5 vs. PlayStation®4, Xbox Series X|S vs. Xbox One)
Local matches featuring FC Barcelona, Juventus, FC Bayern, Manchester United and more
Fall:
Cross-platform matchmaking between consoles and PC (i.e. PlayStation®5 vs. Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation®5 vs. PC Steam®, etc.)
Team Building Mode (Name TBC) opened – build your own team by acquiring players
Online Leagues (Name TBC) opened – take your original team and compete in a global, competitive league
Match Pass system – earn items and players by playing eFootball™
Winter:
Mobile controller support added
Full cross-platform matchmaking across all available platforms including mobile when using a compatible controller
Professional and amateur esports tournaments kick-off
KONAMI is honoured that Lionel Messi and Neymar Jr., two of the greatest footballers of all time, will become global ambassadors for eFootball™. In addition, Andrés Iniesta and Gerard Piqué have been closely involved in development as official advisors for offensive and defensive gameplay, respectively.
No word on a physical copy version of this game on this system(s) in the US at this time. Families are required to pay for Internet usage fees to download this game. For more information click here.
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