How did the (professional) development of electronic football for Konami appear

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eFootball is a fresh start to Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer (PES) series. Not only does the game take a completely different approach by switching from a paid annual release to a free-to-play model, but it also builds on an entirely new game engine this time around: Unreal Engine 4.

This shift naturally led to questions about whether eFootball will be able to overcome some of the typical pitfalls and challenges that the free-to-play model can pose, and how content will be delivered to players after release.

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In an exclusive interview with TechRadar, we spoke with eFootball producer Seitaro Kimura about how the development team is managing cross-play, the advantages of working with Unreal Engine 4, and what he sees as eFootball’s biggest innovations.

what’s in a name?

From Pro Evolution Soccer to PES, and now eFootball – Kimura explained that the decision to scrap the series’ long-running name (known as Winning Eleven in Japan) was due to many factors. Mainly, the prospect of turning the game into a viable esports.

“We have been working on a project to revamp the PES game engine to coincide with the launch of the next generation of home game consoles like PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X | S,” says Kimura-san.

“At the same time, we knew we needed to meet the needs of the market by making the game free and cross-platform, allowing players to compete and collaborate across devices.

“After major changes in the game engine and business aspects, we [wanted to] Create a large cross-platform esports landscape. To this end, we have made the decision to unite “Winning Eleven” in Japan and “PES” abroad in “eFootball”. “

New engine, new start

In-game model of Lionel Messi in PES 2020, running on the FOX engine. (Image credit: Konami)

eFootball is powered by Unreal Engine 4, replacing Konami’s FOX engine that powered the likes of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain and previous iterations of PES. Building a game in a brand new engine is always a challenge, but Kimura-san who helped the Unreal development community make the series’ transition to Unreal Engine 4 much smoother.

“With the Unreal Engine, there are many other options for approaches, and with so many people using the Unreal Engine, I can point to a lot of knowledge,” says Kimura-san. Also, at UNREAL FEST, I was able to listen to development case studies for titles that adopted the Unreal Engine, so I was able to get more hands-on information.

“Also, since we were able to develop for all platforms in one environment, we were able to handle cross-platform play relatively smoothly. The game portion of the game uses an in-house soccer engine, so integration was very difficult.”

ingenuity of free play

(Image credit: Konami)

eFootball is set to launch with a total of nine officially licensed teams, and we now know that new teams will be added and updated for free, along with individual teams. “We will also continue to offer Live Update, a free data update service, so transfers and changes made by each team will be updated weekly,” says Kimura-san.

There will also be a predictable mix of licensed teams and component teams, according to Kimura-san. “There will only be a few teams available at launch, but other licensed teams with different names will be available as usual via free updates.”

Offline modes such as the Master League will be available in the future as “premium downloadable content” in eFootball, and the game will feature a Match Pass system that allows you to choose your favorite players and earn items based on the number of matches you play. “Both free and paid passes will be available,” Kimura-san says. “Paid items will include single players in the new team building mode, and match tickets mentioned above, and we plan to sell additional modes in the future.”

But how will eFootball balance its multiplayer and single player components when it comes to future fixes and updates, and avoid falling into the “pay to win” trap that many free games succumb to?

“We plan to sell existing offline modes as premium content in the future. As for those fixes and updates, they will be done in the same way for all modes,” says Kimura-san. “We are focused on making sure that all players can enjoy a fair game, so the game specification will not be a ‘pay-to-win’ system where paid items will determine who wins or loses in a match.”

(Image credit: Konami)

Unlike FIFA 22, eFootball will let you play with friends no matter what platform they’re on, including mobile. If you opt for the mobile version, which will also support consoles in a future update, the good news is that you won’t always need a Wi-Fi connection if you want to get into soccer, assures Kimura-san.

“Yes, it is possible to play online with a 4G or 5G connection,” Kimura-san explains. “We are developing and tweaking so that differences in connection quality depending on the environment you’re playing in have as little impact on the gameplay as possible.”

But will there be a Nintendo Switch version of eFootball? Perhaps, though, Kimura-san fails to provide an answer at this point. It sheds some light on what PS5 and Xbox Series X players can expect when they play eFootball for the first time.

“Please expect to see major visual improvements on PS5 and Xbox Series X,” Kimura-san says. However, there is no 120Hz support on the console.

good kick

(Image credit: Konami)

While switching to free play and picking a new name is certainly important to eFootball, its success will ultimately be decided by how the beautiful game is recreated. And when it comes to improvements on the field, Kimura-san believes that by focusing on the 1v1 element of football, adding an entirely new animation system, and by working with some of the best players in the world, eFootball will ultimately benefit.

“The most interesting part of football, in my opinion, is 1v1 attack and defense. The 1v1 gameplay is the most innovative aspect of eFootball and will change the balance of the game,” says Kimura-san.

“In order to achieve this, we have innovated in every possible way,” Kimura-san explains. “In order to understand how the best players in the world play, we brought in [Andreas] Iniesta and [Gerard] Piqué as our play advisors and asked for their advice.

In addition, the realistic gameplay requires diverse animations and high response. To achieve this, we have built a completely new animation system, including technology we call “Motion Matching”. You can enjoy the delicate ball touch, pretend to cheat your opponent, or defend with your body, or blocking a shot at the last minute.”

Interestingly, this new approach led to eFootball adopting a control system similar to FIFA, where players now control sprinting and close control rather than shoulder buttons.

“With the revamp of the game engine, we focused on the most exciting part of football, the 1v1 battle between players. As we created the game system by breaking down the mechanics of winning and losing in realistic 1v1 battles and the tactics used by higher level players, we had to recreate the Structuring the method of control so that players can enjoy the sophisticated tactics.” -san. “Also, instead of having more complex controls, the game is more intuitive and allows players to focus on the gameplay against their opponents, so we think that people who have enjoyed the PES series in the past will be able to get used to it and enjoy playing against each other.”

We won’t have to wait long to get to play eFootball, which is coming out early fall (most likely in September) for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PC and mobile. It remains to be seen if the match will be a contender for the championship or fodder for relegation.

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