Believe it or not, eFootball 2022 has been out for nearly five months now. We’ve covered the tumultuous release and the fallout from it, so we’re not going to be kicking that dead horse again. Instead, let’s check in with the folks over at Konami to see what has transpired by giving an eFootball 2022 update.

eFootball 2022 Update

The Last Time I Saw You

The last time we talked eFootball 2022 was way back in early November. By then, the game had released in such a poor state that it was temporarily the #1 game sitting atop Steam’s Top 250 Hall of Shame (It has since fallen to #2). The bugs were so prevalent and bad that Konami offered refunds to anyone who purchased the
Premium Pack pre-orders. Even after a fairly large patch (v.091) on November 5, the game still remained largely unplayable for all besides the most loyal of PES enthusiasts.

Thanks for kill my fav game @play_eFootball #efootball2022 here is a Video with Ansu Fati running like naruto pic.twitter.com/JQ2KRr2RwC

— Ricardo (@BassRicky_) September 30, 2021

Gameplay

Sadly, the gameplay hasn’t changed drastically since the last update, which for the most part concentrated on bugs and visual oddities. Any improvements can be attributed more to gaining familiarity with a game that differs from eFootball PES 2021 Season Update. New button inputs, such as having sprint tied to the right trigger, took some time to get used to. Either way, the adjustment is one of muscle memory and of no actual change on Konami’s part. Dribbling is a bit different than the last time we saw PES, but it’s probably one of the only bright spots in a game full of missteps.

Player switching and awareness are still awful. The once proud ball physics have regressed, and the brilliant individuality that made PES what it was over the years is gone. Version 1.0.0 is supposed to be the important game saver that brings such amenities like “Sharp Kick” but it’s long overdue and worthy of its own section here.

Updates

For the life of me, I can’t understand why teams — let alone leagues — are deciding to partner up with Konami at this point. Regardless, since the last update Konami has added a partnership with Mexico’s top league, Liga BBVA MX.

The agreement will allow Konami to have access to players and stadiums of Liga BBVA MX to take images, including 3-D scanning and movement capture, as well as true recreations of the official uniforms of each club. The implementation process will begin starting Summer of 2022.

That’s a nice get and wraps up the brace of North America’s top two divisions, with the MLS already signing a partnership last year. From the sounds of it, not only do we get the teams fully equipped with players and kits, but we also get the stadiums and that is something that Konami has been missing out on the last couple years.

In addition to acquiring Liga MX, Konami has also selected NeXR Technologies for a two-year deal. If you’re not familiar with NeXR Tech, don’t worry, neither was I until a few days ago. Inked in the last couple weeks, NeXR specializes in photorealism through avatar creation and full body scans.

I’ve always preferred PES‘ body scans and faces to FIFA, but even those two areas were downgraded from the last time we saw PES. The timing is pretty odd considering Konami made the 2021 game a slightly improved but mainly glorified roster update. That time off would have seemed like the more logical time to contract out visuals considering the studio was switching to a new engine on new hardware, but perhaps there were other factors in play behind the scenes — thinking contractually here. Nevertheless, companies are sticking by Konami, so if the developers ever get their gameplay back to being decent, there could be some folks in North America that would love a go at a possible legit CONCACAF Champions League.

Roadmap

What seems like ages ago, Konami released this developer roadmap to show what was to come in late 2021/early 2022. It’s not uncommon for developers to run afoul of project timelines, especially in this day and age of shortages both in the labor and parts departments. Unfortunately for Konami, the poor initial reception combined with the lofty promise of cross-generation gameplay was too much for Konami to bite off. Looking back at that roadmap, only two significant milestones were met:

1. Local matches using nine renowned teams
2. Online leagues/competitions opening

Being where we are now in the game’s cycle, most of us have long since given up on eFootball 2022. This is the risky side of offering a game for free. Quite simply, if the game is bad, there’s no incentive to keep playing it unless you gave Konami money in the form a pre-order bonus or some other in-game microtransaction. In comparison, PES 2021 Season Update is still going strong, especially within the PC community that has taken the game to another level with mods.

Bumps Along The Road

Fast forward to January 2022 and the road Konami paved was not looking good. In fact, traffic has come to a full standstill with many players veering off to FIFA or have moved on to hoping UFL can at least provide competition — or at least something fresh. With time edging closer to the release of V 1.0.0, Konami dropped this on us.

Thank you for playing eFootball™ 2022.

We apologise for the long wait for the release of the eFootball™ 2022 update (version 1.0.0).

In the meantime, Pre-season Match Campaign will start today, where players can earn rewards to be delivered after v1.0.0 release.

1/2

— eFootball (@play_eFootball) January 20, 2022

Not only are we in the dark about when it’s coming out, we also don’t know what exactly will be in Version 1.0.0 of eFootball 2022. We know there are so many gameplay things to fix that it’s unrealistic to expect Konami to address them all, but the game needs to at least to be playable without the bugs and frustrations that plague it in its current state.

After all, roughly 10 days ago Konami was once again on the apology tour without throwing us any information about when and what we could expect with V 1.0.0.

Thank you for playing eFootball™️ 2022.

We apologise for the long wait for the release of the eFootball™️ 2022 update (version 1.0.0).

— eFootball (@play_eFootball) February 17, 2022

More uncertainty with some certainty built-in — the promise of rewards that you can redeem when you re-download eFootball 2022 and drive up their download count.

Bottom Line

Most of the rumors about when to expect whatever Master League has become have a target date for the summer, but there’s no real reason to believe we’ll get solid gameplay by then. This leads me to wondering what area of eFootball 2022 will Konami focus on for V 1.0.0? Konami is a huge company, but it feels as if PES is a small-scale game with its resources stretched thin. Can Konami pull of full crossplay, improved gameplay, and the return of its most famous mode all in one update?

I think we know the answer already.