Konami looks to change up the formula as PES 2022 is reportedly to go full free to play later this year

[nolifebr]

The info. game from Andy Robinson @ VGC

PES 2022 Reportedly Plans To Go Full Free To Play Later This Year

New reports claim that Konami plans to make PES 2022 free-to-play this year, marking a huge shake-up for the franchise.

www.gfinityesports.com

 

[Kingpin722]

All sports games should do this given how heavily they rely on micro transactions and minimally update the games.

 

[Patitoloco]

I'm going to bet this refers to PES Lite, same as the last few years.

If not, PES will be so dead in the short term.

 

[VermillionA]

Based on the online test I think it definitely needs it lol. That shit was rough.

 

[Something Creative]

PES/WE has been one of my favourite franchises for over 20 years. I was really looking forward to seeing how they'd do with the new engine and with two years (granted, with covid) to create something new.

I don't really know what to make of this. If this isn't PES Lite, and these guys aren't just confused, then I don't understand how they could possibly make enough money off of this. Is their thinking they'd launch the game on more platforms, including mobile, and draw in a much larger audience with F2P? And then make their money with microtransactions?

 

[Tennis]

Based on the online test I think it definitely needs it lol. That shit was rough.

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it sure felt and looked really awful.

 

[cw_sasuke]

If not, PES will be so dead in the short term.

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This doesnt make a lot of sense.
Considering their current position going f2p is very smart - this coupled with the potential Switch release and having cross play across all plattforms, could make it a valid Fifa alternative and get people to stick around for longer.

 

[Pryme]

All sports games should do this given how heavily they rely on micro transactions and minimally update the games.

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I'm sure a huge chunk of players don't engage in the MTX filled modes, so it probably won't make sense for the market leaders to go a F2P route.
Certainly, it would worsen the experience for players like myself.

Konami probably has to do this since PES is on the verge of extinction.

 

[Pryme]

it sure felt and looked really awful.

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Based on the online test I think it definitely needs it lol. That shit was rough.

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It was made clear that the online test was meant to test network stability. Those were most certainly placeholder visuals

 

[Blent]

Bilal Zafar in shambles

 

[Patitoloco]

This doesnt make a lot of sense.
Considering their current position going f2p is very smart - this coupled with the potential Switch release and having cross play across all plattforms, could make it a valid Fifa alternative and get people to stick around for longer.

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Because:

A. MyClub, which is what's going to be available in a F2P scenario, is not even close to UT in terms of engagement
B. PES is fucking awful online wise, and if you depend on people only playing online you're dead in the water
C. What little PES fans are left prefer modding and ML experiences
D. When general audience sees London Blue vs Madrid White they're still going to turn off the game so hard, kids care about licenses, and PES still won't have most.

Honestly, I hope PES survives because it's at least a good game gameplay wise, and competition to FIFA is good, but this I really think won't help.

At any case, I still think they're talking about PES Lite being at launch (instead of months after release like past years), and they just don't know it.

 

[Ales34]

I think that's a good decision. It'll definitely attract more people to the game who otherwise wouldn't have bought it.

 

[eggroll]

Based on the online test I think it definitely needs it lol. That shit was rough.

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it sure felt and looked really awful.

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I think that was was the mobile PES with the PES 2022 network code. Nothing to do with what the actual game will look or play like. Notice the camera zooms in when you're shooting etc...
This is a very interesting direction for PES. Hope it forces FIFA to do the same because the money FUT rakes in + charging full price for it every year is just obscene.

 

[Tennis]

Those were most certainly placeholder visuals

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Well I sure as hell hope so but most likely it's pretty much what we are getting since we are so close to the launch of the game. I'm sure the visuals aren't fully finished but they wouldn't have a detailed feedback form if they had placeholder visuals.

I think that was was the mobile PES with the PES 2022 network code. Nothing to do with what the actual game will look or play like. Notice the camera zooms in when you're shooting etc...

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It was so bad that people are in full denial. The survey made it seem like this was pretty close to the final product. Why would they run a network test on a different game than the one they're launching? It takes time and effort to port a mobile game to consoles after all

I'd love to be proven wrong though.

 

[ClamBuster]

This doesnt make a lot of sense.
Considering their current position going f2p is very smart - this coupled with the potential Switch release and having cross play across all plattforms, could make it a valid Fifa alternative and get people to stick around for longer.

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this is an important take

if PES can get their F2P model right, make it available on all systems, and have full cross play across everything, then i'm not saying it can topple FIFA, but it can put itself in a position to grow into something really big

 

[eggroll]

Is so bad that people are in full denial. The survey made it seem like this was pretty close to the final product. Why would they run a network test on a different game than the one they're launching? It takes time and effort to port a mobile game to consoles after all

I'd love to be proven wrong though.

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Denial ? lmao big assumption there mate
The thing is specifically called network test. It's also visually and in gameplay identical to the mobile version.
If you want more details: last PES was built on Fox Engine, the mobile version is Unreal Engine, and the next one is also Unreal Engine. So what they did was take an Unreal project (the mobile version), integrate the new netcode in, and publish it. Unreal (and Unity) makes it fairly simple to publish on other hardware without too many specific tweaks, especially since they don't have to worry about performance or anything (since it's a mobile version running on much superior hardware).
I really don't care enough to keep debating this so this is my last message.

 

[LebGuns]

They really need to just go all out at this point, dedicate the proper budget, and get the licenses. Enough with this half assed shit.

 

[Akuma-san メカ豪鬼]

I hope EA also do this for NBA Live so they could catch up to 2K.

 

[Winstano]

I'm sure a huge chunk of players don't engage in the MTX filled modes, so it probably won't make sense for the market leaders to go a F2P route.
Certainly, it would worsen the experience for players like myself.

Konami probably has to do this since PES is on the verge of extinction.

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Konami make more money from MyClub than pretty much anything else they do. FWIW, I've also heard this from a couple of sources.

 

[neuq]

PES Lite at launch, bring it

 

[Genio88]

They will never give the full game for free, it will just be the my club mode only version, where you have to build your team from scratch and spend real money to do that faster, like in FUT, but i bet they will still sell the game at full price if you wanna play with all the real teams in other game modes online and offline. They've been doing that for 2 years already calling it PES Lite

 

[Patitoloco]

Konami make more money from MyClub than pretty much anything else they do. FWIW, I've also heard this from a couple of sources.

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I trust you way more than Andy Robinson (or mostly anyone else lol) for PES stuff.

 

[Deleted member 11038]

They really need to just go all out at this point, dedicate the proper budget, and get the licenses. Enough with this half assed shit.

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LIcenses is not something Konami is half assing. They are absolutely almost all locked to Fifa because EA acquires them with FUT moneys. EA has so much more cash compared to Konami they could afford to buy the entire Konami Digital Entertainment section if they wanted.

One time Konami managed to obtain the entire La Liga license complete with stadiums, the following year EA was pissed so not only they rebought them, they also made sure that Pes won't ever have similar looking teams, they had to use Madrid A, Madrid B and so on, except for Barcelona or another team according to licensing laws.

Do you know that few years ago just when Konami was promoting the new Pes with Borussia Dortmund players EA acquired the license and made it so the contract with Konami had been in fact cancelled? Konami signed a three or four year contract but EA came, offered more and the previous contract with Konami was cancelled.

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www.konami.com

EA is evil and will use their money to try and cancel Pes as a football game.

 

[LebGuns]

LIcenses is not something Konami is half assing. They are absolutely almost all locked to Fifa because EA acquires them with FUT moneys. EA has so much more cash compared to Konami they could afford to buy the entire Konami Digital Entertainment section if they wanted.

One time Konami managed to obtain the entire La Liga license complete with stadiums, the following year EA was pissed so not only they rebought them, they also made sure that Pes won't ever have similar looking teams, they had to use Madrid A, Madrid B and so on, except for Barcelona or another team according to licensing laws.

Do you know that few years ago just when Konami was promoting the new Pes with Borussia Dortmund players EA acquired the license and made it so the contract with Konami had been in fact cancelled? Konami signed a three or four year contract but EA came, offered more and the previous contract with Konami was cancelled. EA is evil and will use their money to try and cancel Pes as a football game.

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Hold up, EA has *exclusive* FIFA rights? How is that even possible? There are so many leagues and associations.

 

[Deleted member 11038]

Hold up, EA has *exclusive* FIFA rights? How is that even possible? There are so many leagues and associations.

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Yes, Pes has some exclusive licenses too. Licensing laws allow that.

 

[Patitoloco]

Hold up, EA has *exclusive* FIFA rights? How is that even possible? There are so many leagues and associations.

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FIFA, the association, does not have any licenses per se, other than the World Cup and stuff like that.

EA goes to each league and negotiates their agreements one by one. Having the "FIFA" name gives them nothing.

 

[eggroll]

FIFA, the association, does not have any licenses per se, other than the World Cup and stuff like that.

EA goes to each league and negotiates their agreements one by one. Having the "FIFA" name gives them nothing.

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For the sake of completeness, PES (and FIFA now with the teams PES signed) can still use players' names and likenesses through something called FIFPRO. So they change the team names, logos etc... So we get Piemonte Calcio (Juventus in FIFA) and North London FC (Arsenal in PES). But with the correct squad and player appearances.

 

[Beamerball]

Konami make more money from MyClub than pretty much anything else they do. FWIW, I've also heard this from a couple of sources.

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Any rumblings of a Switch version?

 

[Deleted member 17676]

Bring back Seabass!

I know it was going downhill towards the end with him. But in my opinion it's been worse since he's left. None of the new guys have improved. The online modes there's nothing to them and the servers make EA servers amazing.

 

[Patitoloco]

For the sake of completeness, PES (and FIFA now with the teams PES signed) can still use players' names and likenesses through something called FIFPRO. So they change the names, logos etc... So we get Piemonte Calcio and North London FC. But with the correct squad and player appearances.

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Correct, player licenses go through FIFPRO, which is why all games have real players, no matter what team licenses they have.

 

[Deleted member 17676]

 

[Winstano]

My understanding of it is that EA basically have first refusal on the Premier League and a couple of other leagues, but even if they didn't, the cost for the English leagues alone is astronomical. As long as edit mode exists in PES, there'll be a community driven focus for getting kits and leagues out there.

Individual clubs from a couple of leagues are then allowed to negotiate per-club licensing deals, hence PES having 1 or 2 Prem clubs. Where it gets interesting is the international leagues where there are less stringent exclusivity clauses. For example, Serie A allow clubs to negotiate fully exclusive licenses, which is why Juve weren't in FIFA last year but were in PES. The focus for licensing, I believe, is around South America, where PES still kills it.

Any rumblings of a Switch version?

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Haven't heard anything, but to be fair I also haven't asked

 

[SixelAlexiS]

Based on the PS5 demo I understand why, it's a quite bad mobile game, rip to PES I guess.

 

[Deleted member 17676]

My understanding of it is that EA basically have first refusal on the Premier League and a couple of other leagues, but even if they didn't, the cost for the English leagues alone is astronomical. As long as edit mode exists in PES, there'll be a community driven focus for getting kits and leagues out there.

Individual clubs from a couple of leagues are then allowed to negotiate per-club licensing deals, hence PES having 1 or 2 Prem clubs. Where it gets interesting is the international leagues where there are less stringent exclusivity clauses. For example, Serie A allow clubs to negotiate fully exclusive licenses, which is why Juve weren't in FIFA last year but were in PES. The focus for licensing, I believe, is around South America, where PES still kills it.



Haven't heard anything, but to be fair I also haven't asked

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Licensing doesn't matter. The gameplay on Fifa isn't amazing. PES needs to nail down the gameplay. Back when PES was great during the PS2 days, the sales were neck and neck despite EA having all the licenses. People just want a decent football game and one that works online. PES hasn't been able to do both for a while now, so people will just go with Fifa as the default option.

 

[Hopz2Brew]

Interesting move. This, combined with an all cross platform feature could set a new dawn to a dead game. Charging full price every year is just ridiculous and FIFA should be on the same path soon.

 

[IamAToast]

Played the online demo of it. The gameplay was aweful. Only played some hours of PES in the last years to help someone with Achievements. But it didnt feeled that worse. Was the Demo even with "new" engine?

Hope PES bombs more that they already do that they dont buy more exclusiv license teams. :D Next years Seria A in Fifa will be empty with real clubs otherwise.

 

[Gloam]

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It's still true today for the most part.

FIFA was, has been and continues to be Bad Stuff.

 

[EXXo]

Konami make more money from MyClub than pretty much anything else they do. FWIW, I've also heard this from a couple of sources.

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Ahhhh I know who those sources are Winstano ;)

 

[Samanyolu]

I hope EA follows suit with FIFA, but we all know they won't.. I quit FIFA two years ago, since it just keeps getting worse and worse, but I still buy the games for my dad and brother. It'd be cool if I didn't have to pay for it anymore lmao

 

[pswii60]

I remember when PES got bigger than FIFA for a couple of years, Konami totally lost their momentum going from Gen 6 to Gen 7.

 

[Hayeya]

Just Remaster/remake PES 3-4-5 and get over with it.
Teams from that Era were Golden: Brazil, France, Real Madrid, AC Milan, Inter Milan....

 

[TheMadTitan]

All sports games should do this given how heavily they rely on micro transactions and minimally update the games.

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Only if there's offline modes. Otherwise, I'd prefer something like fighting games where you buy it and then they feed content in seasons, especially if it means I can dick around in GM/season modes without being tethered to online shit until I specifically decide to play a game online.

 

[ghostcrew]

Wonder if Super Bomberman R Online has done better for them than they expected and they're more keen on F2P now.

 

[Something Creative]

Played the online demo of it. The gameplay was aweful. Only played some hours of PES in the last years to help someone with Achievements. But it didnt feeled that worse. Was the Demo even with "new" engine?

Hope PES bombs more that they already do that they dont buy more exclusiv license teams. :D Next years Seria A in Fifa will be empty with real clubs otherwise.

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All the licenses in the world can't save FIFA, but there's no accounting for taste!

 

[Alex840]

Last year was just an update to PES 2020 which itself has a free 'lite' version, so they've been flirting with this idea before.

They had such a strong start to last gen, which was even more apparent by FIFA just not clicking with people. From around 2017 onwards though, PES has just been slowly fading away, I don't see that franchise being around for much longer.

 

[Patitoloco]

Last year was just an update to PES 2020 which itself has a free 'lite' version, so they've been flirting with this idea before.

They had such a strong start to last gen, which was even more apparent by FIFA just not clicking with people. From around 2017 onwards though, PES has just been slowly fading away, I don't see that franchise being around for much longer.

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Last year was just an update because they explicitly said they were using the extra year to move to Unreal Engine 4.

PES has been doing Lite versions since PES 2018.

 

[Deleted member 10795]

Licensing doesn't matter.

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It really does.

People want to play something that looks and sounds like what they see on TV every week. People like playing with real teams and players in properly branded leagues and broadcast packages. FIFA's approach not just to licensing but the presentation in general has been a real factor in their explosion over the last decade or so.

PES' presentation sucks, and it's worth pointing out that not every platform even allows you to get around that by downloading Option Files. You can't on Xbox and I bet you wouldn't be able to on a theoretical Switch version.

 

[Alex840]

Licensing doesn't matter. The gameplay on Fifa isn't amazing. PES needs to nail down the gameplay. Back when PES was great during the PS2 days, the sales were neck and neck despite EA having all the licenses. People just want a decent football game and one that works online. PES hasn't been able to do both for a while now, so people will just go with Fifa as the default option.

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It might not matter to you, but to the average person it really does!

Last year was just an update because they explicitly said they were using the extra year to move to Unreal Engine 4.

PES has been doing Lite versions since PES 2018.

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Ahh ok, thought last year was the first one. My point stands though, it feels like it has less of a presence now than it ever has.

 

[CasualsareFilth]

Hmm nothing I'm hearing about this game sounds particularly positive so far. I was hoping with a year off they'd make some big steps forward. Hopefully this isn't indicative of the quality of the final product.

 

[eggroll]

In a sense, an f2p FUT-like game doesn't really need the licenses beyond what FIFPRO already grants PES (ie. real player names and likenesses). You make your own team with existing players. So that kind of bypasses the enormous advantage FIFA has in licenses, as long as they can get the gameplay and presentation right.

It's not the mode I play so I'm not interested, but I do see what they're going for and I wish them success. FIFA has been comfortably enjoying its position for too long and the games are worse for it.