It's also using Unreal Motion Graphics to create new menus (long a bugbear of PES players) and hopefully improve players' flow through menus and into the game itself.Īnd if you're worrying about the game itself, Kimura tells us this is where the custom-built football engine comes into play. Kimura tells us that the team has used Unreal's Blueprint visual scripting tool to speed up early development and fix performance issues more quickly – which will presumably help the team to make speedy changes to the live service project. The engine shift has been about more than making a multi-platform game, though. "Unreal Engine's development speed is one of the fastest among game engines, and its scalability includes both high-end and low-end – perfect for mobile and next-gen platforms."ĮFootball will be built for consoles first, and use that scalability to tailor it to other devices, something Kimura assures us will mean it will look and play like a new-generation game on PS5 and Xbox Series X, but still work fluidly with mobile players. "That's why we chose Unreal Engine," Kimura says. It's that dual approach that's helped along Konami's wildly ambitious plan to release a version of eFootball across new-gen consoles, last-gen consoles, PC, and mobile – and to eventually allow cross-play across every version. Using an engine built only for one company's games (as PES has done with Konami's FOX Engine previously) means building new tools only as you can spare the manpower to get to them – with Unreal already so fully featured, and open to so many people, Kimura says his team reduced "waste" while making what it needed.Īll of that work has seemingly been to create a best-of-both-worlds situation – using Unreal as a base allows the team to work with one of the most popular, and more importantly well-supported, game engines in the world, but customising it allows Konami to control the creation and refinement of eFootball more closely, with purpose-built tools. Let’s just hope Konami keeps the number of microtransactions in check.ĮFootball will be available to download for free on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PC, and mobile on September 30, 2021.That ability to learn from others has seemingly been key for the eFootball team. The prospect of eFootball allowing cross-platform play, including against mobile players, is also something that FIFA 22 doesn’t offer, and with the game being free, there’s at least no barrier to entry this time around. Time will ultimately tell if Konami can get the balance right with eFootball, as the free-to-play model, when done right, can be compelling for both players and developers. Especially as Konami has confirmed that Master League will be a separate purchase later down the line. I really hope that eFootball’s Master League mode, which has always been the highlight of any PES game for me, is free of microtransactions, too. There’s a real possibility that the development team will be bogged down by trying to monetize the game at every given opportunity, instead of focusing on eFootball delivering the most convincing game of soccer to date. It also makes me worry about the direction of eFootball in general. While it’s common knowledge and completely expected at this point that free-to-play games tend to be littered with microtransactions and premium bundles such as this, I can’t help but feel disappointed that Konami is pushing DLC so readily for what will likely be its main money-spinner, Creative Team, especially as it can’t even be used until a later date. Hopefully, the on-pitch action will not disappoint. Thankfully, for the rest of us who don’t see the value of spending money on building a virtual team of football players, eFootball will let at least let players take part in friendly matches locally or online using the nine official teams that are available. If Konami can give out eFootball Points at a generous enough rate, perhaps there’s a chance that players won’t feel unfairly compelled to purchase the game’s premium currency, which will no doubt be bundled into very specific, annoying amounts. The game will use three types of currency: eFootball Coins (premium), eFootball Points (earned through gameplay), and GP (also earned through gameplay). Konami claims its monetization model for eFootball will be “rebalanced to ensure that all players can reach the same potential, regardless of how they acquire in-game items”, but forgive me if I’m a little skeptical about that. This is where these microtransactions will really come into play (and hopefully won't seep into the other modes). EFootball’s take on Ultimate Team is ‘Creative Teams’.
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