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Konami has rebranded its long-running football series PES to ‘eFootball’, which will be released as a free to play title.
The next instalment of PES (known as Winning Eleven in Japan) will be released under the eFootball title, and has been “completely rebuilt in Unreal Engine.” eFootball is planned to release on PC, Xbox and PlayStation consoles this Autumn, with iOS and Android releases planned to release later.
eFootball will be released for free, but additional content and game modes released after launch will cost money. eFootball is a digital-only title, and Konami promises to regularly add new content and game modes following its launch in Autumn. Local matches featuring FC Barcelona, Juventus, FC Bayern, Manchester United and others will be available for free at launch.
“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.”
Gameplay details are expected to be shared next month, but Konami did mention “Motion Matching,” a feature which “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.”
Konami has also announced that Lionel Messi and Neymar Jr. will become global ambassadors for eFootball. Additionally, Andrés Iniesta and Gerard Piqué have been closely involved in development as official advisors for offensive and defensive gameplay.
More details about gameplay and online modes will be revealed in late August.
