Konami’s eFootball gets 1.0 release six months after disastrous launch

Konami’s eFootball — this is the former Pro Evolution Soccer, in case you missed that — will finally get its full launch on April 14, more than six months after a terrible launch that sank it to the bottom of Steam’s worst-reviewed games.

eFootball Version 1.0 was expected at first in November. Konami put off plans for a revamped game when the first free-to-play version of the game was launched.

In a blog post on Wednesday, Konami Digital Entertainment said, “we believe we have finally reached a level of quality that we can be confident of. […]You can rest assured that there are still functionalities available in future updates. So keep checking back for more information. In the meantime, we certainly hope you enjoy this ‘New Soccer Game’!”

Patch 1.0 will add a new mode of play, “Dream Team,” formerly called “Creative Team.” Although somewhat like Ultimate Team modes seen in FIFA and other sports video games, Dream Team will let users choose their favorite players and managers, rather than randomly collecting players and trying to make the best team from them. The team can be used to compete against other players online or with single-player CPU opponents.

Before Patch 1.0, there was only one way to play the game: online and local matches with one of nine clubs. In the last major update, a content roadmap was released calling for Dream Team and cross platform multiplayer support. Wednesday’s blog post did not mention cross-platform support. The blog post did not include any information about Match Pass, the system that unlocks content to aid the game.

In terms of gameplay changes, Konami says it has responded to players’ criticisms of the game’s defense and changed some of the controls to make that more intuitive. “Pressing commands that were available in previous installments will also be reintroduced into the game,” the blog post said. eFootball 1.0 will also add “shoulder charge” and “call for pressure” commands to help players.

Konami explained that the speed of passing has been rebalanced and improved upon by some players who complained about it being too slow. “We have generally increased the pass speed so that the pace of the game matches with the aforementioned defense-related improvements,” it added.

You can find out more about Patch 1.0 in the rest of this blog post.

eFootball It is now available for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 and Windows PC. For 2020, Konami Digital Entertainment took a year off from PES’ annual launch schedule to remake the game in Unreal Engine 4, dropping the old Fox Engine developed for the Metal Gear franchise.

Currently, it has an aggregate user score of 1.45 based on 28,565 reviews on Steam, good for second place in Steam250.com’s Hall of Shame. It had been the worst overall until December’s War of the Three KingdomsFree-to-play card-collecting game, heavily criticised because of its microtransactions.