You're not being very rigorous in how you're arguing for this potted history.
The second bullet point: it's in an interview on an obscure Russian site in 2018 (you can tell from the context of the conversation and the build-up to PES 2019). We have no idea the accuracy of the translation (perhaps a double translation at that). He talks about engine plans in what can only be understood as extremely tentative terms. The next-gen consoles he alludes to – at that point we still had no idea about them, in terms of nomenclature, release year, technical specifications, etc. To take what he says there as indicative of any real plan for next-gen/current-gen PES was always silly, and got sillier with time. I can't believe people still bring this up as though it was some settled intention on the basis of this one source.
Your first bullet point – I think there's been some back and forth about the claim, and similar claims as to who was the "boss" of different games, in this thread already. But the truth of what you've asserted there is not clear to me. Do you have any solid evidence on that front? (And clarified in a manner that isn't "boss".)
The third bullet point is written tendentiously. You take for granted in that stage of your reconstructed history that there was this next-gen version in the works, and reference it casually as though not contestable and based on very weak evidence.
Then how you talk about cross-play ("the leadership changed to Kimura and cross-play became the focus") – we honestly have no idea when cross-play became an earnest ambition, but we can see that mobile was doing well for them well beyond last year, they integrated a new currency cross-platform earlier, and built promotional tie-ins on console to celebrate (i.e. promote) the mobile game even further back.
Notice also how you start with a time indicator ("about the same time last year") and that implicitly structures the rest of what follows, but that's just not plausible. We know, e.g., the Masuda interview (about which obviously there are huge doubts anyway) was in 2018. So even if your claim about change of leadership is true, it doesn't mean that decisions about cross-play or F2P structure had to happen according to your implicit timeframe – could easily have been under Masuda (again, given your leadership history) in, say, 2019.
The last thing is that I'm not sure how these companies run, but I doubt the individual has that much control over direction as is being assumed here anyway. There will be boardroom meetings with various important people and stakeholders, shareholder representatives, etc. It is a decision that will have to have been made in concert anyway.
In short, I think we've got scant evidence to really conclude there was some noble direction of the franchise led by some fallen hero, who was dastardly struck down by the corporate-brownnose, who waded in and changed things up last minute. I also don't know why we need such a narrative. We certainly don't need it to make sense of the direction of the franchise (which has been consistent) and the industry more broadly. We don't need it to make sense of the shoddiness of this product either.
Do you still doubt that a next generation version was in the works and was eventually canceled?
You still have doubts. Must you see official sources to believe you?
The true version of the ninth generation was under construction. Incidentally, the development of this version continued until 6 months ago. And was canceled for various reasons. Many of the ninth generation developers are no longer on the eFootball development team.
Have you forgotten what Mr. Hosoda, the producer of the PES series, said? And the words of the play director Masuda? And so are Lennart Bobzien!?
Have you not seen the dismissal of many employees and the changes in Konami?
It is clear that until 6 months ago, the ninth generation version was in development. But all of a sudden, the real version of the ninth generation was canceled for various reasons. Seitaro Kimura came and implemented his plan.
Hosoda spoke six months ago :
For Manorito Hosoda the most successful esports are for free and portability. That's why Konami launched PES Lite, the free and mobile version of eFootball PES. Many of the sports games sold around the world, such as football or basketball, must be purchased by players (who also have to buy consoles, eventually), and esports events are not available on mobile. If we can change the situation, we will give games based on traditional sports a greater chance of success. Sports in the real world can even be played on the street or in open spaces, and I believe we will need to achieve a similar level of accessibility. Precisely for this reason PES has decided to bring esports to mobile phones and has created PES Lite, a free version of the game for consoles. If we offer everyone the opportunity to organize export tournaments, the number of tournaments will increase
Read Hosoda words carefully, you will notice that their publishing policies have not changed until then. As always, they wanted to release a free version of the game in PES Lite.
And what does vague Russian site mean?
The interview was conducted directly with Masuda, and Masuda had made it clear that the new graphics engine would only be seen on ninth-generation consoles. And eighth-generation consoles with Fox engines will continue to operate. You even use this obvious interview as an excuse to be mistranslated and other excuses!
The ninth generation version was under construction for three years. In short, due to the corona, high production costs and Konami's greed and many other issues, it was eventually canceled.
Was this Konami the first time he had done this? They are masters at destroying their own big IPs.
There are many other interviews and explanations that I can put here to let you know that the real generation version of the ninth generation was in use. This eFootball is very flawed because it has only been developed for 6 months.
The mobile version, developed with the code Unreal 4, adds new features to it, and due to the cross-platform, the game has become a disaster that we all see.
