Pro Evolution Soccer renamed eFootball for launch in 2021

Konami’s football video game, known as Pro Evolution Soccer or Winning Eleven since 2001, is now simply eFootball. No PES, no numbering.

It is also now free. And it’s developed in Unreal Engine 4, another first franchise. (Of Pro Evolution Soccer 2015 until last year, it had been built with Konami’s Fox Engine, originally developed by Konami’s Kojima Productions for its Metal Gear franchise.)

So, Konami calls eFootball “a whole new football simulation platform ”, rather than an iteration and rebranding of PES. The publisher added “eFootball” to the series title in 2019.

The first six-minute trailer of eFootball – which is in development for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One and Xbox Series X, as well as iOS and Android devices – features the franchise’s top three European clubs: Manchester United, Bayern Munich and Juventus , the last of which is exclusive to eFootball and does not appear in EA Sports’ FIFA series.

Konami used the new engine to rebuild the game and “create an incredibly exciting and, most importantly, realistic individual system,” according to the trailer’s narration. This system is called Motion Matching, and it will be a feature of all versions of the game – current and previous console generation.

But in view of a development roadmap published on Wednesday, eFootball will launch in “early fall” as a relatively straightforward title, with other systems, modes and features introduced later. Cross-platform play, for example, is promised in the reveal video, but it’s expected to debut later in the fall; cross-platform matches on Android, iOS, PC, PlayStation and Xbox are expected to arrive this winter. Intergenerational play on PlayStation and Xbox will be available at launch.

Image: Konami

As for eFootballThe free-to-play component of, which will be supported by a battle pass system called Match Pass, which will offer tiered rewards (or the way to buy loot directly). Juventus, Bayern Munich, Manchester United and Barcelona will be available for free to all players at launch.

Konami has also announced its intention to sell “certain game modes […] as optional DLC ”, which likely means a purchase for the game’s career sequel, assuming the free component mirrors PES’s old Master League mode.