2020 moved the dial for Konami, but with next-gen consoles on their way – what can we now expect?
The football world is in uncertainty at the minute, and many players are turning on their games consoles to distract them from the pain.
Of course, your either a FIFA or a PES man – so here’s what Konami is offering this year.
NOW WATCH BELOW: Check out the latest PES 2020 news now!
Release Date
There is no official release date for PES 2021 yet, but last year they stole a march on FIFA by releasing a couple of weeks earlier in mid-September.
Using the same approach, we would estimate the release to be Friday 18th September 2021.
That said, there was a free demo available a few weeks prior to launch of PES 2020 and hopefully, this will be repeated.
Trailer
We know that the popular gaming trade show, E3, will be held from 9th-11th June this year. It’s here that we expect to get our first proper look at PES 2021.
This year, it is expected that the guys at Konami may potentially announce an entirely new game engine that has the potential to fundamentally affect play style.
A whole new style of gameplay was the focus last year, an overhauled passing system and improvements to players likeness was the focus in trying to compete with being a more ‘realistic’.
Following the pattern from last year, we expect Konami to release further trailers and selected access in and around July 2020.
This is dependant on there not being any issues if they do introduce a new engine aimed at utilising the most out of the next-gen consoles.
Cover Star
PES has always been genuinely competitive with FIFA when it has come to cover stars.
Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi have both adorned the cover multiple times, but the recent tendency has been to have multiple stars or teams on the cover of Konami’s soccer title.
PES 2020 won the rights to multiple teams and picked players to represent this.
We had Barcelona’s Lionel Messi, alongside Manchester United’s Scott McTominay and Bayern Munich’s Serge Gnabry. The final star was Juventus’ Miralem Pjanic.
FIFPlay PES 2021 cover vote
FIFA community website FIFPlay has already commenced a vote on who should be the PES 2021 cover star.
There are no surprises in this poll with the two biggest names splitting the vote. Cristiano Ronaldo leads with 23% of the vote, to Messi in 2nd with 19%. Mohamed Salah is 3rd with 10%.
RealSport’s PES 2021 Cover Stars prediction
Based purely on speculation we expect Konami to secure the rights to big teams across multiple leagues and repeat PES 2020 by having four stars from four partner clubs.
Arsenal – Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang
Barcelona – Lionel Messi
Bayern Munich – Robert Lewandowski
Juventus – Paulo Dybala
Master League career mode
PES 2020 made some great strides with their Master League career mode that made it much more competitive with FIFA.
The addition of immersive options to choose a management style and answer questions in press conferences that shape the outcome of your team was an improvement on previous years.
It is good to see this kind of investment in a career mode within a context where pay-to-win gaming is growing in My Club and FUT.
However, Konami has the opportunity to take advantage of EA’s focus moving to FUT and filling a void in the management side of gaming.
Licences
Part of the resurgence for PES has been them battling FIFA for exclusivity rights. For years, PES has been mocked for having to have made up team names like ‘Merseyside Red’ for Liverpool.
But they got one back last year and bagged the exclusive rights to Juventus. For the first time, FIFA had to make up a name and they were called Piemonte Calcio in FIFA 20.
When it comes to licences, it’s an all or nothing game.
When FIFA had everything it was in their interest to keep it this way, but as more and more spread to PES it becomes in the interest of neither game to have that divide and to focus on gameplay as a way of beating each other.
But with Juventus blazing a trail to not just be licensed to PES, but exclusively so, who will be next?
We expect the front runners to be Barcelona, Bayern Munich or Manchester United. All of these clubs have strong links to the game and its history.
Barcelona would be a real coo for the franchise but is likely to come at a huge cost.
They have strong links with PES, with the Camp Nou stadium exclusive to the game, and Barcelona is one of the best clubs at leveraging its commercial income.
READ MORE: Every single club and national team on PES 2020
Bayern Munich would be a good strategic choice due to the fact they haven’t got a license to use the Bundesliga and therefore there are only two German teams in the game.
Given EA’s relationship with the Bundesliga, it could be tricky to have FC Holywood exclusively on Pro Evo.
Finally Manchester United offers a chance to get a globally known team at a big of a bargain.
Some mocked them for having Scott McTominay on the cover for PES 2020, but due to their on the field performance, Konami might be able to get a bit of a bargain for a team that is still one of the most supported globally.
READ MORE: Everything you need to know about PES 2021’s licences
The Premier League’s relationship with EA Sports is rock solid, with every single English top-flight club on FIFA 20, along with their stadiums.
Potential new Gaming Engine
PES 2020 already made strides in the visuals of the game, and this was one of the points it was commended for. However, the expectation is with a new gaming engine this will come again even further.
Konami’s historic battle with EA has always been about image rights and realism. PES 2020 was where they have gotten competitive again but this was on a six-year-old Fox engine utilised since PES 2014.
Kei Matsuda of Konami has previously mentioned that they do plan on using a new engine for the series “in the future.”
He did not specify if that was applicable for PES 2021, but he was clear it wouldn’t be planned until there was a new generation of consoles that could maximise the rationale behind updating.
READ MORE: Mesut Ozil removed from PES Mobile
The change could be to Unreal Engine. This is currently used on PES Mobile.
With it highly unlikely that next-gen consoles could run with Fox Engine, a switch to Unreal is an organic and sensible switch.
As we move to 2020 we can start to look at what this year holds for gamers. With the PS5 and Xbox Series X just around the corner, PES 2021 could be a defining release as it attempts to make a comeback of sorts.
Next Gen
With both the PS5 and Xbox Series X boasting impressive specs that will help bridge the gap to the PC, it is looking more and more possible that cross-platform play will be possible on next-gen consoles.
Both the new PlayStation and Xbox are expected to hit during the 2020 holiday period, with some speculation that they will arrive in late November.
This means PES 2021 will first be available on the current generation of consoles, PS4 & Xbox One, which limits the scope of cross-platform play on release.
READ MORE: PES 2020 now available on Xbox Game Pass
Still, with more and more games offering it, it’s surely only a matter of time until PES players can do the same. It is also a point of competitiveness where Konami can stand out if they can get there before EA.
Cross-Platform
At the moment, PES 2020 players are only able to play with and against those on their own hardware.
Konami is much less reliant on its myClub model which means the marketplace barriers that EA has is less of an impact for them.
This could be the perfect opportunity for Konami.
They have to constantly find unique ways of taking small parts of market share from their rival FIFA.
Being the first to enable cross-play could make a huge jump as players encourage their friends to purchase the game despite being on different consoles.
