PES 2022 might be radically different this year in a bid to get one over on the footballing competition. This might include a rebrand, but also a move towards being “properly free-to-play” according to Andy Robinson of VGC on the Off The Record podcast. We picked the story up from Gfinity, but the original source is embedded above. Starting at the 21:20 mark, Robinson is very secretive about the future of the franchise. He said the 2022 edition of Konami’s franchise will be “properly free-to-play and really change things up.” There was no word about Master League, co-op, or kick-off, nor the impact a free-to-play model might have on those modes. Also, note that this statement is without elaboration or corroboration, so take along your scooper to the salt pick-and-mix. PES has long released a free version of its MyClub mode — a FIFA Ultimate Team analogue — about halfway into each iteration. This report suggests that Konami may be ready to fully lean into that method of doing business from day one, and it would make total sense. No other huge sports franchise is free-to-play, so Konami would be making a huge move. The Japanese company has already set its sights on FIFA by committing to debuting the game on July 21st, a day earlier than FIFA’s expected reveal at EA Play Live on July 22nd.We already know that last year’s PES 2021: Season Update gave the dev team the extra year it needed to get the ball rolling on an Unreal Engine-powered game. It now seems that the move might have also been to get things into place for a truly changed look for the old-school franchise. Using the accessible and commonly-used Unreal might make more sense if the team need to be constantly updating and messing with parts of the game to keep up with the free-to-play demand.We covered the ‘New Football Game’ network test — an online beta for this year’s Konami soccer sim — last week. While it still needs a lot of work, there is something purring underneath that is just waiting to be let loose. What do you lot think? Is this an expected change? Or just one of those “sure, whatever” things? Pass us your comments on the pitch of debate down below.
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