The Pro Evolution Soccer license, a Japanese competitor of the American FIFA, changes its name at the start of the school year to become an online version called "eFootball 2022".

The game will be accessible for free with limited content.

The publisher Konami will offer subscriptions and paid packs to unlock the entire game.

This is more or less the end of PES. At the start of the school year, the famous football game from the Japanese publisher Konami will change its name and become a 100% digital version called "eFootball 2022", with Neymar and Lionel Messi at the head of the bill. A name change that hides a revolution to compete with the American license of Electronic Arts, FIFA, which remains the best-selling cultural product in France with a million copies each year. The announcement is calculated by the Japanese publisher while at the same time, the designers of the next FIFA have released the first images of the next opus.

ANNOUNCEMENT



We are proud to announce that @neymarjr is our new eFootball PES Ambassador!



To celebrate, a new Iconic Moment special Neymar will be available very soon!

# PES2021pic.twitter.com / yf9zjHrMPP

- KONAMI France (@KONAMIFR) July 20, 2021

Nine playable teams for free

For the publisher Konami, finished the formula of one game per year launched in the early 2000s, or € 70 per unit on Playstation and Xbox consoles.

The eFootball license will be free but its basic version will only include a very small part of the game. The Japanese publisher has not revealed everything, but we already know that there will be only nine playable teams.

Its competitor FIFA 22 will offer more than 700 at the start of the school year.

In order for Pro Evolution Soccer fans to unlock more players, teams, leagues, game modes, it will now be necessary to pay.

Either with a subscription which will give access to all the updates, or by purchasing additional packs drop by drop.

A new model which may surprise but which has already proven its worth since it is that of Fortnite, the star game for young people with more than 300 million players worldwide.

By opening eFootball for free, Konami hopes to expand its player base to, in a second step, convince them to take out the wallet and perhaps shake up FIFA's recent hegemony a bit.