PES' rebranding and new eFootball formula didn't quite turn out how Konami hoped. Not only did the game's animations look terrible – giving us nightmarish versions of our favourite players – but the overall gameplay left a lot to be desired as well. All this resulted in eFootball claiming the title of worst reviewed game of 2021.
With the game's first major update just around the corner, Konami has addressed the reception the game received at launch, as well as the reasons behind many of the issues.
“It’s hard to point to one deciding aspect,” said a spokesperson to VGC. “The incompletion of the game came as a result of multiple factors including the transition to a new football game engine, the support of next generation consoles such as PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, the change of play style to free to play and furthermore, we tried to deliver new eFootball 2022 for players as soon as possible."
They noted that this resulted in the "harsh feedback" about the game's quality when it launched last year. Konami stressed that the developers have kept an eye on player feedback and will be making improvements to address it. We may see some of these improvements in version 1.0.0, launching on April 14.
"We are taking the opinions of our players very seriously," continued the spokesperson. "Since the release last September, we have prioritised improvements and corrections based on the feedback and opinions we received. We will continue to work on the game’s improvement and as always, the player’s valued feedback is much appreciated.”
One of the reasons for the game's poor quality could also have been Konami's decision to launch the game as soon as possible, and not postponing it to improve certain features. "As answered in the previous question, we didn’t have any plans to postpone the release because we ultimately had a strong desire to deliver the new eFootball 2022 game to users as soon as possible," added the spokesperson. "Normally, we would release a new game in the autumn, parallel with the start of the European football season. We apologise to all players who have been waiting for the release."