The surprise was great: Instead of a new “Pro Evolution Soccer” installment, Konami announced the new game “eFootball” – with significant changes. And especially in two points, competitor FIFA 22 could take a closer look.
This was presented: The long-standing Pro Evolution Soccer series is history, “eFootball” is now the name of Konami’s new football platform. According to the announcement, this step was taken because the final result goes “beyond the borders of PES” (via Konami).
The main changes: eFootball does some things differently than PES, foremost the football simulation is built on the legs of the Unreal Engine. In addition, there is a completely new animation system and gameplay features.
New animations and features – EA Sports has also commented on FIFA 22 so far. But besides that, eFootball has two points that are currently missing in the FIFA series. We will take a closer look at these here.
eFootball offers Free-to-Play, has an easy entry
The most significant step of the new eFootball is the decision to switch to a Free-to-Play system. Furthermore, it is supposed to be regularly updated. Throughout the year, new modes will be introduced. A type of Battle Pass is apparently also on board.
This is a step that many players were also expecting from FIFA – especially concerning the Ultimate Team mode. This mode is one of EA Sports’ biggest sources of revenue, due to a shop where players can buy packs either with in-game currency or real money. Here, players have been discussing for years (for example on reddit), that this mode could theoretically also generate revenue as a standalone Free-to-Play variant.
The more important point with the Free-to-Play model, however, is: If you want to take a closer look at or test the game, you can do so without major obstacles. Downloading a free game and possibly deleting it again if it’s not liked is not a problem for many players. eFootball has a good chance of landing on players’ devices without an entry price – and perhaps convincing there.
In contrast, FIFA requires the full-price game to be laid down initially to get a glimpse. Especially last year, with FIFA 21, there wasn’t even a demo to test the game. In terms of “just trying it out and seeing how it is”, eFootball actually has an advantage.
You can find a look at why FIFA 22 urgently needs a demo here.
eFootball can be played together by all – Thanks to Crossplay
Another major point of eFootball’s announcement is that it will be playable “cross-platform”. Basically, everyone and everything is supposed to be able to play against each other: PlayStation can play against Xbox, PC can be challenged, even iOS and Android are involved. According to the announcement, it should be possible to play platform-independent.
This is a point that FIFA players have been talking about for a long time, but they can only dream of it so far. Playing FIFA 21 with Xbox against PlayStation or PC is currently not possible.
Even within a console family, there is no real crossplay: If you want to play with a PS5 against friends with the PS4 version, you also have to run the PS4 version on the new console. The PS5 version, however, is not compatible. So if you are the only one in your friend group with a PS5, you need two FIFA versions – and storage is limited.
Here, FIFA 22 can definitely take a lesson from the FIFA series. Because simply playing a few matches with friends is something that several other games have already managed well. Especially in conjunction with the Free-to-Play aspect, eFootball could become an interesting address when you just want to play a few virtual football matches against friends for little money. At least, if the game itself can convince.
What about the rest? eFootball was presented with a trailer on July 21, which received mixed reactions.
While the like/dislike ratio with 37,192 to 6045 (as of July 21, 20:00) is initially positive, the comments overall are quite critical. Graphics and animations are criticized – especially compared to a teaser released last year that announced the next installment of the series. Some players fear that a “mobile” standard will be applied to the game instead of a “console or PC standard”.
Basically, it remains to be seen how both games actually play and feel – this applies to both FIFA 22 and eFootball. It is still too early for comprehensive comparisons.
You can find a closer look at FIFA 22’s gameplay here: We tested FIFA 22 and the highlight was the new goalkeepers.
