Thread by @KnightMD1

[#eFootball2022 story] Exactly one year ago, Kei Masuda was leading the "Next-Gen PES" project. It was already over two years in production. His plan was to write a next-gen PES from scratch for Unreal Engine. But at some point over the past year, Seitaro Kimura convinced KONAMI,

[#eFootball2022 story] ...that the future of the franchise was in a CROSS-GEN game, not a next-gen one. After all, mobile users were the only weapon Konami could use to stop EA's dominance with FIFA. Bringing mobile users would mean having way more players available online....

[#eFootball2022 story] ...and modes like FUT/MyClub were where EA & KONAMI were making most their money from. The financial success of the game depended on the success of MyClub, and without enough players online, matchmaking will take forever and players will abandon the mode...

[#eFootball2022 story] By Q3 2020, with Covid and the superconductor shortages, it became clear that there will not be enough PS5s and XBSXs in peoples' homes for a "next-gen only" game to succeed. It became clear that they needed to develop the same game for both PS4 and PS5....

[#eFootball2022 story] With a few months to re-write a new Unreal game that runs on both generations, using the mobile PES as a base for the new game became an obvious solution. First of all, it was already on Unreal Engine, making it much easier to use. But most importantly....

[#eFootball2022 story] ...making the new game 'cross-platform' by adding mobile users would solve all issues with matchmaking, with millions of players available to play against console players online. The solution was obvious and it was an easy decision to make. They spent...

[#eFootball2022 story] ...the rest of the year improving the graphical assets of this mobile base for the console version, so it would be more palatable for high-end gamers. Then they introduced a few gameplay mechanics & made it the focus of the new game. But what about...

[#eFootball2022 story] ...the sophisticated physics and tactics that PES was famous for all those years? What about the nuanced off-ball player movement, the inspire trait and all the life-like tactics that were not part of the mobile game engine? Well, they'll just replace them

[#eFootball2022 story]...with FIVE pre-set plans, where players mechanically move like robots into formation once the ball is won or lost. The game will be free, so there can't be many complaints, right? Looking at this whole picture, I agree that a "next-gen only" game...

..didn't sound like a financially sound idea, compared to a cross-gen game. The problem really is, with a few months, they had to rush everything, using a mobile game as a base, with lipstick on top of it. The result is the worst-reviewed game in history. Football is complicated.

What is Kei Masuda doing now? Is he working on a new game? Will Konami give Kimura a year to fix eFootball, and show them that cross-gen works? Many questions, but I guess they'll give him a year to try to fix it, before declaring the project a failure. Just my two cents.

This is Kei Masuda's Bio; he has been part of the Winning Eleven/PES team for 20 years: mobygames.com/developer/shee…
Seitaro Kimura is also a PES veteran; he joined the team 5 years after Kei: mobygames.com/developer/shee…

Fact is, there were 400 million PES Mobile players in 2021. This is the crowd Konami is targeting & they haven't been a console game maker for several years now. They won't judge the success of the game on PC/console. eFootball is a mobile game that just 'works' cross-platforms.

The main release of #eFootball will happen on Nov 11th when it arrives on Android and iOS. We, PC and console gamers, have been beta-testing the demo, so it's in good shape when it launches to the main target audience on mobile. This is the current reality of this sad situation.