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It's eFootball launch day, and things probably couldn't have gotten off to a worse start for Konami, at least when it comes to the game's rating on Steam.
Konami announced earlier this year that it would be rebranding and relaunching its Pro Evolution Soccer series. The day for that relaunch has finally arrived, and the free-to-play eFootball is now available on consoles and PC. While it's probably fair to say expectations were low, Konami wouldn't have been prepared for the early negative reactions eFootball has been receiving.
While it's still unclear how the game is performing on consoles at this early juncture, those playing it through Steam are less than impressed. That may well be an understatement since at the time of typing this, eFootball is the worst-rated game in Steam's history. That's according to Steam 250 which keeps records on the best and worst games according to player ratings.
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The website takes the number of upvotes a game has received and divides it by the total votes, leaving it with a score in the form of a percentage. Right now, only 8.4% of those to have played eFootball on Steam have left a positive rating. Even more damning for Konami is some of those positive ratings have been left as a joke. One reads that the only reason they upvoted the game is because they enjoy games that remind them of playing their PS2.
These are early days for eFootball, of course, and there's a chance its score on Steam will level out in the coming days and weeks. It has already left itself with a mountain to climb though, as the next worst-rated game, which has been bottom for a while, has a rating of 15.2%. 2011's Flatout 3: Chaos And Destruction.
As for the reasons for all these negative reviews, eFootball's first players have been posting footage of glitches, mechanics gone wrong, and just complaints about the game's look and gameplay. The reactions are very similar to the ones that followed WWE 2K20's launch, except this time there isn't a $60 price tag attached. Konami will be hoping once it adds more to eFootball and fixes some of its early teething problems, it will win people around. It isn't a good start for the football sim, though.