It should be something like the reboot of a franchise; a new base for fans of the football game in the virtual space; a real competitor to FIFA by Electronic Arts. But what handed in the Japanese gaming forge Konami with eFooball 2022, resulting in historically bad reviews on Steam.

The end of a glorious series?

Pro Evolution Soccer had presented itself for years as an alternative to FIFA by EA. Although was arriving a David and Goliath battle, after the series was not against the license authority from Electronic Arts. Nevertheless, the developers tried to score points, especially in the areas of gameplay and ball physics – and not without success. Despite the antique-menus and the strange color combinations PES has built up a large following and played himself – with some exceptions – quite good.

Then came a change in thinking and the company wanted to launch a new era. Just as smart entrepreneurs, online stores or large companies that buy backlinks to improve your virtual discoverability. For this purpose they engage marketing agencies as performanceliebe.de, to increase sales or to provide good content. Accordingly, Konami wanted to shake up the market. Unlike options, such as backlinks buy, Google ads or content marketing, Konami explored other possibilities, however, and made a surprising decision.

Because after PES 21 is stopped its development and brought into play with big announcements eFootball. For this purpose, the company suspended the annual releases and focused on a publication for the season 2021/22. even for die-hard PES fans who know absolutely deal with disappointment – accordingly, the expectations were granted. Such as with PES 16 on the PC. Advertised with PlayStation 4 and Xbox gameplay gamers looked at the domestic computers not bad about what Konami presented them on their systems. The result was a critical failure and many who finally turned their backs turn.

And although just was already extremely high with Cyberpunk 2077 the level of frustration release – Konami has surpassed it with eFootball 2,022th Although the game is free as such, but the legacy of PES was flooded within a few hours with negative reviews. Because it looks and plays like a mobile game. The control reacts only with delay, duels seem like Wrestling, Referee float as flat objects through the ground and what is offered in countless playful FIFA videos of slapstick, exceeds eFootball 2022 with a cough.

There is also a on the new engine significantly worse graphics, player faces from hell Write as users and countless animation bugs and errors in the graph. With more than 4,000 reviews just nine percent to release positive in nature.

Konami itself has meanwhile apologized for the disastrous start. Even Reflects referring primarily to the game balance, facial expressions and movement of the players, as well as scenes and much more. However, the Japanese developer assured that timely comprehensive updates will come that address the errors and problems.

The question, however, be must be allowed, how this could happen than a year of development at all for more. finally have been tested must eFootball 2,022th consequently, these blatant errors and problems can not slipped through his. And that s also what makes fans of the series so sour. It seems that Konami canceled the complete quality assurance for the F2P title and a trainee pressed the button for the publication by mistake.