Some very interesting talk about the future of the game. I think, as B-man and others have talked about, that the future will be a main game of Myclub and other modes as paid DLC/subscribtion.
For me, there is a couple of indicators for this:
That Curdie/Alan guy, who is apparently both Adam Bhatti's buddie and the new self appointed spokesman of the "casual fanbase" of PES, has on a few occasions been asking forum members on WENB about their opinion on the prospect of a Free To Play Myclub game with DLC/subscribtion based modes. Given that he's apparantly tight with Bhatthi, I can't help reading Bhatti's quotes from an interview in december in exactely that light:
"There will be significant changes made to the way we produce the game, and what we offer as a package. It's the biggest change to the product in years, something that we began integrating with PES 2018. As mentioned earlier this year, we want to shock football fans each year for the next few years, with certain changes that simply wouldn't be expected from a yearly title."
And
"But we need to offer the same high standard in all other areas (my addition: besides gameplay), we want to be industry leading across the board. It's an easy thing to say, but we're always very aware of what it will take to get there. There will be sacrifices we need to make for the greater good, but all of which will make sense once the game is announced."
And
"The real success however has been the amount of daily active users, which is substantially higher than last year. We added more modes such as Random Select mode and an integrated PES League mode, as well as the hugely popular 3v3 mode - all of which have contributed to more users playing PES consistently and having a reason to log back in each day."
I can't remember where, but I recently read that PES League is restricted to licensed teams. On that basis, combined with the above, I imagine the future, perhaps already 2019, will be a free or fairly cheap game (10-20 £) that is only downloadable (saves the distribution costs) consisting of Myclub, PES League, Random Selection (going online if it's doing well) and 3 v 3 (this might not need to be a mode but just a choice within other modes).
This base game will consist only of partnership clubs that they have been so focused on in the latter years, and will probably be the major clubs of Europe, Latin/South America and Asia (plus some licensed National Teams as usual). So Europe could be 5-6 major clubs from each of the 5 major leagues plus big clubs from smaller leagues. The data they retrieved from Online Divisions probably tell them there's no need for many more teams (everyone playing with Real, Barca, PSG and such).
In Myclub, as B-man said, the Fifpro license will provide them with pretty much all the players they need (plus the German ones from partnership clubs and NT), and the "base club" that users choose for their teams (badges, kits and stadiums) will be based on the licensed teams plus maybe the option to upload selfmade badges and kits to the game (might even be possible for others to see those in game with a disclaimer that Konami does not take legal responsibility for copyright infringements and will hand over user information to clubs/companies taking legal action).
So with that as the base game national leagues, cups, Master League, BAL and international cups will be paid DLCs or subscribtions. Apart from Asia and Uefa Champions League and Europa League (for however long licensed) these will all be unlicensed leagues, teams and stadiums -correct player names though - that include an edit mode similar to today (maybe a bit more user friendly to push sales). The only reason I see for this not to be implemented, is that users who bought the Master League mode would have no real incentive to buy seperate league modes, as they are already included in Master League. Or would it work the other way around - you buy a basic Master League and buy additional leagues to put in that can also be be played seperately?
This scenario would mean the complete capitalization of the game, also meaning that users with desires for smaller teams and leagues could very soon be missing these in PES. On the other hand it could also see a much better and deeper Master League since they'd probably have a dedicated team working on it with funds that reflect the user base (if it is substantial).
It could however also mean the obliteration of offline PES all together if they don't sell enough DLCs/subscribtions.
What would it mean for AI and gameplay in general? For me it's very hard to figure out if they are indeed striving to create the perfect mix of arcade and sim (as in old school PES) or purposely an arcade sprint and ping pong fest. Sadly signs point to the latter given Bhatti's statement in the aforementioned interview:
"I'm extremely proud of how the game is playing, I believe it's the best football playing experience we've ever created."
This coupled with his severing of ties with Footy United and subsequent endorsement of the PES Casual (who ironically is also fairly critical of elements of the game when you scratch the surface) does NOT bode well.
I could go on speculating about further consequences but since the premise is, well speculative, I'll leave it at this:-)
These were just some thoughts I've had lately, sparked to life by discussions on the last couple of pages. Thanks for reading and sorry for the lenght of this!
Interview with Bhatti:
https://www.gamesradar.com/we-want-...ow-his-move-to-japan-will-transform-pes-2019/
Not only with your earlier post but in general on podcasts especially. You've delivered many insights (and rants:-) on those and I kinda miss hearing you talk about PES. However, I completely understand why you guys threw the towel in with the stuff leading up to PES 2018 and then playing the final game!
