Honestly, I´m more and more surprised with the love this forum has for the PES series
I'm not, because the love of PES is independent of the current year's effort (especially so this year, when there isn't a PES and its successor is still in Beta).
Something I've never understood about the football gaming community in general is our fixation upon the new game in the current year. Myself included. I know it wasn't just me who used to play every PES game until the literal night before the next one coming out, and leave it with a sense of unfinished business.
If literally not a single football game was released ever again there are about 14 separate games that could occupy me for the rest of my life, assuming I don't Road Runner into a cartoon railway tunnel tomorrow. You might look at my list and pooh-pooh some, most, or all of them, and be aghast at what's missing, but surely everyone here has their own list. PES3, PES5, PES6, PS2 PES2008, PES2010, PES2011, PES2012, PES2013, PES2014, PES2015, PES2019, PES2021, FIFA15, FIFA16. (FIFA 22 TBA pending longer play.) Even if I somehow got bored working my way through that lot (I know I wouldn't, but if I did), I can lean on the next ones down. I.e. PES2 (
just dropped out of the comfortably-playable zone IMO, but I could still take it for a run), PES2017 (overpowered secondary tackle button and all), ISS Pro 2, etc.
That's the real nature of the love I/we have for the PES series and it doesn't even faintly rely upon the destiny of eFootball or whatever's going on in the alleged real world right now.