I've thought about the whole eFootball situation, from it's announcement to how it all went down on release and since then, due to a conversation with friends in the last few days. Well, we're Brazilian, so football's always a topic, and my friend groups in general enjoy video games, so football video games can show up as one of our topics from time to time when we're just talking randomly, in this case in our free time at our internship. I recalled conversations I've already had before with other friends, and saw people saying online, many years ago... that since football video games don't change much from year to year, it'd be better for consumers in the long run if companies took advantage of our current technology, which allows for updates, and just made a single installment that they'd update, perhaps with some major yearly updates, but still a more continuous thing... and you know what, I do agree with that, even though I do feel that there's a chance of there being less changes in the long run with such a system, no engine changes for example, and that I enjoy having physical media... it's not something that can't be worked around, with offline modes being released as DLC, and there being a physical release that comes with all DLC installed.
When I look back at Konami's situation back when PES2021 came out, it's understandable why they'd go with F2P, their main competitor has more resources for licenses, more people working on it... and way more sales, the public perception of FIFA had already surpassed the iconic Winning Eleven years ago... so how do you turn things around in that situation? Well, with PES being a success on mobile, and all PES Lite releases also being positive for Konami, it's no wonder they went with this... but that's not what upsets me, it's that if eFootball had been well executed... it could've been genuinely perfect in the long run.
I know this might sound strange, but lets imagine this setting. It's late 2021, and Konami has been working on an Unreal Engine PES for a few years, with its mobile port being the lowest common denominator, and they intent on having cross play from the get go, which would solve PES' issue of it being difficult to find people to play with online, especially on XBOX consoles, they've managed to recreate PES' game play quite well for mobile hardware and, thanks to their new Unreal Engine, they're able to release it for everything, with jaw dropping graphics on PC, PS5 and XBOX Series X. It eventually comes out, F2P and all online players hop in and enjoy their Dream Team mode full of cards, on the same day Konami releases DLC for offline modes such as Master League, and a physical release with all DLC installed. It plays well, graphics are good on next generation machines, online players can enjoy it for free as long as they don't buy packs, offline players have their modes and disk at a lower price than what FIFA offers, cross play makes sure that there are always a bunch of players online to play with, mobile players enjoy a console accurate experience, and at the end of each year we pay for offline again and they release a new disk.
Well, with all of this in mind, probably with some actually not dreadful marketing, and proper UI/HUD design alongside a logo that's more sophisticated, or maybe going for the traditional Winning Eleven name instead of rebranding it to eFootball... and Konami could've seriously taken a step in dominating once again like they did in the PS2 days, since they'd have a cheaper and more accessible product than FIFA, that'd also cost less in the long run, and with a huge player base thanks to mobile. I seriously think that Konami could've made something truly special for both modern and old school players... they just blew it.
