PES 2021 will be a streamlined season update, PES 2022 to be first PS5 and Xbox Series X release for franchise

Konami has revealed its plans for the Pro Evolution Soccer, or PES as it widely known as, franchise and it how it plans to move to the next generation. The first confirmation is that PES 2021 will not be a next gen title and will instead be a “streamlined season update” to tide players over until PES 2022 is ready. The publisher will not begin testing the next gen PES until mid-2021 with the aim to release that in the same year. The PS5 and Xbox Series X PES will be running on an updated engine so allowing for better player animations, ball control, more realistic physics, and an overhaul of the visuals. The full statement from Konami can be read below.

As the industry stands at the precipice of an exciting new generation of consoles, we believe that now is the perfect time to share some of our plans for the future of the PES franchise with you. To that end, we are excited to announce that we are hard at work on a next-generation football title that aims to truly embody our core concept of “The Pitch is Ours”. This title is being developed with an updated engine that will enable us to dazzle you with staggering improvements to all areas of the game. Expect more realistic player models and animations, enhanced physics, photorealistic visuals, and much much more.

We recognize that many of you are enthusiastic for new myClub and Master League content, and we are also excited to share that large updates are in the works for both of these modes. However, the sheer scale of everything we are aiming to achieve for our next-gen debut has made it necessary to pare back our efforts in other areas of development. As a result, we have made the decision to launch this year’s PES as a streamlined offering in the form of a “season update”. That being said, we are still extremely confident that this year’s game offers fans more than enough thrills to tide them over until our next-gen title is ready for launch. This year also marks a quarter of a century since the very first PES title was released. To commemorate this important milestone, and more importantly, to show our gratitude to you, our loyal fans, we are pleased to announce that this year’s PES will launch at an affordable anniversary price and will also come with several bonuses.

Currently, we aim to begin testing of our next-gen title sometime in mid-2021, with an estimated release date later in the same year. Until that time, we hope to see you back on the pitch in this year’s season update. Look forward to more news regarding our next-gen project closer to release.

As mentioned, PES 2021 will be released at an affordable price to reflect that this version of the game will not be much more than a seasonal update due to the studio moving its efforts to the first next gen PES title.

Source: Konami

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From the heady days of the Mega Drive up until the modern day gaming has been my main hobby. I'll give almost any game a go.