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Konami attempted to reboot the PES (Pro Evolution Soccer) franchise as a free-to-play game with eFootball 2022. As the game launched on September 30, it made headlines for all the wrong reasons.
What seemed like a decent initiative was held back by severely buggy gameplay and atrocious graphics. Player faces didn’t just turn out to be funny; most gamers feel that some of them are just nightmare fuel.
On the other hand, FIFA 22 hasn’t had an entirely smooth launch either. Players complained of various bugs in the game, including disappearing players and blurry camera effects.
This brings gamers to an age-old debate between PES (now rebranded as eFootball) and FIFA.
Is eFootball 2022 the better choice for the future of gaming?
eFootball vs FIFA - Different battle, but same war
EA Sports and Konami have been at constant war with each other over licensing of the likeness of players, teams, and competitions. So far, the former has had the upper hand with the highly successful FIFA franchise. The franchise is so popular that EA Sports almost has a monopoly on football in the virtual world.
Both video game series have their ups and downs, although people prefer FIFA more than Konami because it has more licenses. It provides more realistic representations of players, clubs, and competitions. This gives players a more personal experience, and connection with the real-life happenings in the football world.
The price of FIFA 22 varies from around £45 to £80 depending on the edition and the platform. eFootball 2022, on the other hand, as mentioned before, is completely free-to-play.
How does Konami expect to earn revenues from a free-to-play soccer game?
Although it may seem quite radical, free-to-play isn’t something new in video games, nor is it new in football games. EA has made FIFA Mobile completely free-to-play with various in-app purchases. In fact, EA is renowned in the gaming world for utilizing in-game microtransactions.
Konami seems to have chosen this route, as eFootball 2022 is expected to bring massive content updates and purchasable DLCs. The free-to-play aspect entices a larger number of players to sign up for the game. They can then make purchases to stay ahead of their competition.
This has been the usual strategy for MMOs for a long time, and is slowly becoming the norm for various other games with online functionalities.
eFootball 2022 - Pros and Cons
Although eFootball 2022 can be played free of cost, it has some major drawbacks. The developers seem to have rushed through development and have released an unfinished game. It looks nothing like what the earlier trailer had promised.
Another drawback is the fact that they are far behind FIFA's aggressive licensing regime, which covers almost all the players, clubs, and leagues. On the other hand, eFootball 2022 is one of the first major video games of its kind to be provided for free.
If this strategy is successful, players can hope for more games in the future that require no upfront payment. It would be truly revolutionary if all microtransactions in the game were limited to cosmetic items only.
eFootball 2022 is one of the first major video games of its kind to be provided to people for free. If this strategy is successful, players can hope for more games to be available for free, or at a lesser price, in the near future.
