Konami Is Replacing 'PES' With Free-to-Play 'eFootball'

Konami has officially brought an end to its PES brand.

Originally launched back in 1995, PES (or Winning Eleven as it’s known in Japan) was Konami’s take on a football game, mainly competing against EA‘s FIFA franchise over the years. Last year, Konami began the game’s transition into eFootball PES 2020, but has now finally decided to take the plunge and kill off its PES branding for good, instead simply naming the new free-to-play game eFootball.

“Our ambition was to re-create the perfect soccer environment, from the grass on the field, to the players’ movement, all the way to the crowds in the stadium,” reads the new game’s official website. “To this end, we decided to create a new soccer engine with a newly built animation system and revamped game commands. The final result was even more impressive than we had originally conceived. We went beyond the border of PES, into a new realm of virtual soccer.”

For fans of the age-old franchise, eFootball will launch this autumn.

Elsewhere in gaming, Valve is now paying fans to create weapon skins for Counter-Strike GO.