Konami has revealed that the upcoming fall launch of soccer sim eFootball will essentially constitute a demo. The game will launch with a limited amount of content, with more to follow throughout the fall.
What content will be available in eFootball at launch?
Over on the official eFootball Twitter page, Konami posted a Q&A where it cleared up some of the more pressing questions about the game. In response to the question of whether eFootball will be "basically a demo", the team says that "in many ways", this is the case. To get the game in as many players' hands as possible, it'll launch this fall with a limited amount of teams and modes, with more content coming throughout the season. Konami says exact details about how this launch will work are coming at a later date.
So, what content will actually be available in eFootball at launch? You'll be able to play local matches, either against another player or against the AI. The famous Master League mode - which was a staple throughout eFootball predecessor Pro Evolution Soccer's lifetime - won't be available at launch and will be premium DLC when it does release. Beyond that, Konami says it'll reveal exactly what you'll be able to do when eFootball launches in the next few weeks. Everything at launch will be free-to-play; the devs have confirmed that eFootball's "Early Autumn" phase won't have microtransactions.
What exactly is eFootball, and how is it related to PES?
If you're a soccer nut, you probably already know PES (Pro Evolution Soccer). It's basically "the other" soccer franchise next to EA's FIFA games. Last month, Konami revealed it would drop the PES branding from the next instalment in the franchise. Instead, it'll simply be called eFootball, and will be a free-to-play game available on current-gen and last-gen platforms as well as mobile. Rather than annual paid instalments, eFootball will become a live service game with yearly updates. It'll run on a new engine and will also include new gameplay modes, although Konami is staying pretty quiet about exactly what those modes are at this point.
Rather intriguingly, eFootball will support cross-play between all platforms including mobile. Konami has confirmed that you will need to use a controller if you're playing on mobile and facing off against console or PC players. The devs have, however, promised that there won't be any graphical downgrading for the PC or console versions, and that if you want to, you'll be able to filter players based on "location and platform". We'll almost certainly learn more about eFootball in the next few weeks, as Konami has slated a more thorough gameplay reveal for later this month. Stay tuned.
Are you excited to check out eFootball? Let us know in the comments below!
