eFootball PES 2021 Season Update is just a few weeks away!

There may not be any crazy new features this year, but with plenty to offer at a fantastic price, will you make the move?

Read our following “Everything you need to know” feature to understand the game in detail, just like the title obviously suggests.

Latest News – Konami confirm exclusive partnership with Roma!

A tweet from the official PES Twitter has confirmed that Konami has agreed a new and exclusive partnership with AS Roma!

They also released a poster to announce the big news – check it out below:

Release Date

eFootball PES 2021 Season Update will be arriving on Tuesday, September 15, 2020.

Leading man, Leading club

With the help of Lionel Messi and his club FC Barcelona, eFootball PES has clawed back at EA Sports FIFA. However, the scenario in real life is a bit more tense, as it has been understood that Messi wants to leave the Blaugrana due to the club’s disappointing display and results in the recently concluded 2019-20 season.

The new Season Update will come to PS4, Xbox One and PC (via Steam).

eFootball PES 2021 Mobile Announcement

eFootball PES 2021 Mobile will arrive over a month later than the PES 2021 full game.

eFootball PES 2021 Season Update Explained

Konami has confirmed that they have made the decision to launch this year’s PES as a streamlined offering in the form of a “season update”. This year also marks a quarter of a century since the very first PES title was released.

To commemorate this important milestone, and show gratitude to their fans, Konami has announced that this year’s PES will launch at an affordable anniversary price and will also come with several bonuses.

Licences

KONAMI and eFootball PES shocked us all last year and bagged the exclusive rights to Juventus. For the first time, FIFA had to make up a name and they were called Piemonte Calcio in FIFA 20.

Turning of the tide: Juventus return for eFootball PES 2021

Konami look to have continued their quest in Serie A, potentially adding Roma to their exclusive ranks. However, both Milan-based top flight sides AC Milan and Inter Milan signed multi-year exclusive deals with EA, which is a blow to eFootball PES 2021 as Serie A will hence not be fully licensed.

That said, we know that AS Roma will not appear on FIFA 21 – opening the door to an exclusive PES deal.

Other eFootball PES 2021 Confirmed Partner Clubs

• Juventus (Exclusive)
• Barcelona
• Bayern Munich
• Manchester United
• Arsenal
• Corinthians
• Sao Paulo
• Flamengo

eFootball PES 2021 Confirmed Leagues & Tournaments

Euro 2020 is confirmed to return for PES 2021 after the tournament was delayed until next summer. Other licensed leagues we expect to return are Italy’s Serie A, French Ligue 1 and the Brazilian Brasileirao Serie A.

PES 2020’s licensed leagues and tournaments were:

• Euro 2020
• Italian Serie A
• Italian Serie B
• French Ligue 1
• French Ligue 2
• Brazilian Brasileirao Serie A
• Brazilian Brasileirao Serie B
• Russian Premier League
• Belgian Pro League
• Danish Superliga
• Argentinian Superliga
• Thai League 1

eFootball PES 2021 Confirmed Stadium

PES 2020 had some of the world’s finest stadiums and could now include the Stadio Olimpico. It included the Nou Camp of Barcelona, Manchester United’s Old Trafford and Bayern Munich’s Allianz Arena.

What other iconic venues can we expect to feature?

Figure 1: EXCLUSIVE – You can’t find the Allianz Arena in any other game

Euro 2020 (or is it now 2021?) venues Wembley Stadium and the Krestovsky Stadium (home of Zenit St Petersburg) are arriving in eFootball PES 2020 via DLC, and with the tournament being delayed a year, expect them to stick around for 2021.

Football game community website FIFPlay have commenced a PES 2021 Stadium vote.

The current front runners are Elland Road (Leeds United), Vodafone Arena (Besiktas) and Sukru Saracoglu Stadium (Fenerbahce).

Official Cover

Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo will share a cover for the first time ever.

The two greats are joined by recent Champions League winner Alphonso Davies and Manchester United’s Marcus Rashford.

Trailer

The official eFootball PES’s Twitter account recently shared the new Season Update trailer and it looked great! Check out the trailer on eFootball PES’s official YouTube channel by clicking on the image below:

Figure 2: Lionel Messi is the star feature of the Reveal Trailer

Next-Gen Trailer

Konami has made the decision to release this year’s eFootball PES game as “season update” rather than a full game, so that they can focus on their next-gen debut.

Well now, the game developers have given us a first look at what PES could look like on next-gen and boy, does it look good!

This next-gen title is being developed with an updated engine that will bring staggering improvements to all areas of the game. This engine may well be the Unreal Engine 5, which was showcased in an impressive demo earlier this year.

What can you expect?

Well, if it is this game engine, expect to see photorealistic graphics, next-level ‘real-time’ lighting effects and also incredible audio! Konami has also confirmed that there will be large updates for both myClub and Master League.

Konami aims to begin testing of their next-gen title sometime in mid-2021, with an estimated release date later in the same year. You can find Konami’s full statement here.

Club Edition Pre-Order

There are five club editions of PES 2021, with a little bonus that comes with them!

Figure 3: ICONIC – The additional cost is worth it for CR7 alone

For just £5 / $5 more, you can pick up the individual Club Editions with a whole host of extras:

• Iconic Moment Player in myClub
• A full club squad in myClub
• Classic digital kit
• Original in-game menu theme
• *PS4 Exclusive* An exclusive menu theme and avatar
• 3 Contract Tickets x30 weeks (Renew 90 player contracts over 30 weeks) in myClub

The Iconic Moment players available for their respective clubs are Cristiano Ronaldo for the Juventus Edition, Lionel Messi for the Barcelona Edition, Oliver Kahn for Bayern Munich, David Beckham at Manchester United and Dennis Bergkamp for Arsenal.

Price

PES 2021 Season Update will cost just £24.99 / $29.99 and is available on PS4, Xbox One and PC (Steam).

Alternatively, you can pre-order a special Club Edition which will set you back £29.99 / $34.99.

The Club Editions include versions for Arsenal, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Juventus and Manchester United. Further, it also looks like loyal PES fans will be rewarded!

Loyalty Discount

The Loyalty Discount is in place to recognise PES’s most dedicated players and gives players a 20% discount when they pre-order a Club Edition of PES 21 through PES 2020.

Read more about PES 2021 Licences right here.

The above is also great news for the player-base to go alongside the fantastic looking trailer reveal.

Demo

As per the reports coming in from multiple sources, we could expect to see a PES 2021 demo coming in a very soon.

This is largely based on when the last demo was released for PES 2020, which was Tuesday, 30 July for PC, PS4, and Xbox One. If we take this date and predict from there, we could see the PES 2021 demo available anytime from Tuesday, 28 July.

That said, if PES 2021 is just an update of PES 2020, would there be any need for a demo?

Master League career mode

PES 2020 made some great strides with their Master League career mode that made it much more competitive with FIFA.

It is good to see this kind of investment in a career mode within a context where pay-to-win gaming is growing in My Club and FUT.

Figure 4: SUPER FRANK – Is the Chelsea manager coming to Master League?

Although no new significant features are coming, we may be receiving new managers with Frank Lampard, Pep Guardiola and Ryan Giggs all featuring in the game’s trailer.

Next Gen

With both the PS5 and Xbox Series X boasting impressive specs that will help bridge the gap to the PC, it is looking more and more possible that cross-platform play will be possible on next-gen consoles.

Both the new PlayStation and Xbox are expected to hit during the 2020 holiday period, with some speculation that they will arrive in late November.

This means PES 2021 will first be available on the current generation of consoles, PS4 & Xbox One, and should be playable on PS5 and Xbox Series X by backwards compatibility or Smart Delivery.

Will PES 2021 be optimised for Next-Gen?

Taking PES 2021 and optimising it so it can use the full power of Xbox Series X and PS5 seems like a great idea, but how likely is it?

PES 2021 is most likely not going to be optimised for Xbox Series X, or PS5, as Konami is already teasing PES 2022 on NextGen.

Is this a good move? We think it is, as it means that when we do get PES 2022 on next-gen, it’s guaranteed to deliver on performance, looks and gameplay.