eFootball PES 2020
eFootball PES 2020 (eFootball Pro Evolution Soccer 2020) is a football simulation video game developed by PES Productions and published by Konami for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Android and IOS.[1] The game is the 19th installment in the Pro Evolution Soccer series and was launched worldwide on 10 September 2019, and was launched in Japan on 12 September 2019. The new game features a name change with the addition of 'eFootball' within the title, symbolizing a push in the online gaming space with a focus on eFootball Pro tournaments. Lionel Messi returns as the cover star of the standard edition, since his last appearance on the Pro Evolution Soccer 2011 cover, alongside Pro Evolution Soccer ambassadors Serge Gnabry, Miralem Pjanić and Scott McTominay, each representing one of the game's partner clubs.[2] Ronaldinho will feature on the cover of the legend edition.[2]
eFootball PES 2020 | |
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![]() Promotional image of the game featuring FC Barcelona player Lionel Messi | |
Developer(s) | PES Productions |
Publisher(s) | Konami |
Director(s) | Yoshikatsu Ogihara |
Series | Pro Evolution Soccer |
Engine | Fox Engine Unreal Engine 4 (Android, iOS) Havok (physics engine)(Android, iOS Chinese ver.) |
Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows PlayStation 4 Xbox One Android iOS |
Release |
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Genre(s) | Sports |
Mode(s) | Single-player, multiplayer |
The mobile version reached 300 million downloads by June 2020.[3]
Club partnerships
Barcelona
A renewed agreement between Konami and Barcelona, was announced signalling a continued relationship with the Spanish football club. Together with this announcement it was also confirmed that a special Barcelona edition will be released.[4]
Manchester United
Manchester United and Konami announced an agreement which would see the club, its stadiums and players recreated within the game. The current squad have also been created using a full-body 3D scanning process, providing players of the game with ultra-realistic avatars.[5]
Bayern Munich
After the announcement of the demo — which came out on 30 July 2019,[6] FC Bayern Munich was announced as an official partner club.[7] Players will have the full experience with authentic kits, full 3D scanned players and, exclusively, Bayern's home ground, Allianz Arena.
Juventus
Juventus signed an exclusive partnership with the game, which will see it includes the club kits, player names and stadium with realistic likeness in game and also making it the first time in 25 years that the FIFA series will not hold the licence for the club.[8]
Arsenal
On 28 June 2019, Arsenal announced a 3-year extension to their partnership with Konami, which would see a highly detailed recreation of Emirates Stadium, as well as access to club legends and first-team players.[9]
Game modes
Included for the first time in the PES series, there is a new game mode called Matchday Mode. Players around the world will help their team to glory one match at a time in the new Matchday mode. Konami will choose an important match or derby game each week, players will then be able to decide which team they want to represent on Matchday.[10]
Master League has also received a number of revamps, most notably containing a story-like progression, with all-new cutscenes taking place in staff meetings, training sessions or press conferences, as well as objectives to be accomplished based on replies given by the player on those cutscenes.
Downloadable content
Data Pack 7 was released on 4 June 2020. The update was related to UEFA Euro 2020 and the content included the official kits and player likenesses for all 55 officially licensed UEFA teams. Update also includes 5 out of 12 venues of 2020 tournament, as well the official match ball.[11]
Teams
Competitions
Eighteen leagues are fully licensed in the game. All the teams in these leagues feature real players, kits and logos, although a minority of the players in the Brazilian leagues still appear with generic names.[12] Three new league licenses were obtained: the Italian Serie A, Italian Serie B (unlicensed at launch), and the Brazilian Campeonato Brasileiro Série B.[13][12]
Konami have retained the licence for the AFC Champions League, remaining in the game since its introduction in PES 2014.[12] With this, debutants for 2019 AFC Champions League, Gyeongnam, Daegu and Johor Darul Ta'zim also appear for the first time in this franchise.
The English Premier League (with the exceptions of Manchester United and Arsenal), EFL Championship, Spanish La Liga (except for Barcelona and Mallorca) and Segunda División will appear as unlicensed leagues in the game. These leagues will, however, feature real players.[12] Serie A have all clubs licensed, except Brescia.
Thai League 1 and Chinese Super League top league are included.
Commentary
- English Language: Peter Drury and Jim Beglin
- French Language: Grégoire Margotton and Darren Tulett
- German Language: Marco Hagemann and Hansi Kupper
- Italian Language: Fabio Caressa and Luca Marchegiani
- Spanish Language: Julio Maldonado and Roberto Martinez
- Argentine Spanish Language: Rodolfo Depaoli and Diego Latorre
- Brazilian Portuguese Language: Milton Leite and Mauro Beting
- Japanese Language: Jon Kabira and Tsuyoshi Kitazawa
- Arabic Language: Fahd Al-Otaibi
Reception
Reception | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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eFootball PES 2020 received generally positive reviews from critics for all platforms.[14][15][16]
On December 2019, Arsenal midfielder Mesut Özil was completely removed from the Mandarin version of the namesake game in Mainland China, after a fallout on his tweet about condemning the Chinese government crackdown on Uyghurs. According to NetEase Games, they stated his comments that "hurt the feelings of Chinese fans and violated the sport's spirit of love and peace. We do not understand, accept or forgive this."[24]
Awards
Year | Award | Category | Result | Ref |
---|---|---|---|---|
2019 | Game Critics Awards | Best Sports Game | Won | [25] |
Gamescom | Nominated | [26] | ||
2019 Golden Joystick Awards | Best Multiplayer Game | Nominated | [27] | |
Titanium Awards | Best Sports/Racing Game | Nominated | [28] | |
The Game Awards 2019 | Nominated | [29] |
Trivia
- Hong Kong Football Association officially held an e-sports tournament during the coronavirus pandemic, which was mainly contested by the footballers from the 10 clubs of 2019–20 Hong Kong Premier League despite none of the clubs was appearing in the video game. The edit data of the league (also known as the "option file") from the community editing team, WEHK (Winning Eleven Hong Kong), was used.[30]
References
- "eFootball PES 2020 Release Date set for 10th September!". PRO EVOLUTION SOCCER 2019. Retrieved 12 June 2019.
- "eFootball PES 2020 GLOBAL COVER REVEALED AND DEMO AVAILABLE TODAY". Konami. 30 July 2019. Retrieved 1 August 2019.
- https://www.konami.com/wepes/2020/eu/en/pc/topic/game-wepes2020-20859
- "FC Barcelona renews agreement with KONAMI, with Messi to appear on the cover of the new edition of eFootball PES 2020". www.fcbarcelona.com. Retrieved 12 June 2019.
- "Man Utd teams up with Konami on new PES 2020 football video game". www.manutd.com. Retrieved 2 July 2019.
- "eFootball PES 2020 Demo is Coming Out This Month - Esports News". EsportsTalk.com. Retrieved 12 July 2019.
- "FC Bayern München - KONAMI Official Partnership". eFootball PRO EVOLUTION SOCCER 2020 - Partner Bayern Munich. Retrieved 12 July 2019.
- "Juventus to be called Piemonte Calcio in Fifa after PES deal". BBC. 16 July 2019. Retrieved 16 July 2019.
- "Partnership with KONAMI extended". arsenal.com. Arsenal FC. 28 June 2019. Retrieved 1 August 2019.
- "PES 2020 announced: Messi, Ronaldinho & Iniesta show off new gameplay, Master League & Matchday". realsport101.com. Retrieved 18 June 2019.
- "New Data Pack (7.00)/Patch (1.07.00) Available!". Konami. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
- "Licenses and Stadiums List". konami.com. Konami. Retrieved 22 August 2019.
- Pangalos, Phil (9 October 2019). "*BREAKING* PES 2020 continues to add new licences a whole month after release". realsport101. Retrieved 9 October 2019.
- "eFootball PES 2020 reviews for Playstation 4". Metacritic. Retrieved 5 October 2019.
- "eFootball PES 2020 reviews for Xbox One". Metacritic. Retrieved 5 October 2019.
- "eFootball PES 2020 reviews for PC". Metacritic. Retrieved 5 October 2019.
- Wakeling, Richard (10 September 2019). "eFootball PES 2020 Review - A Winning Formula". GameSpot. Retrieved 18 September 2019.
- Gilbert, Fraser (12 September 2019). "eFootball PES 2020 review: "A faithful replication of the beautiful game… the most realistic PES to date"". GamesRadar+. Retrieved 18 September 2019.
- Meikleham, Dave (26 September 2019). "eFootball PES 2020 Review". IGN. Retrieved 26 September 2019.
- Iwaniuk, Phil (20 September 2019). "eFootball PES 2020 review". PC Gamer. Retrieved 19 October 2019.
- Brooke, Sam (17 September 2019). "eFootball PES 2020 Review (PS4)". Push Square. Retrieved 19 October 2019.
- Wiggins, Tom (12 September 2019). "eFootball PES 2020 review". Stuff. Retrieved 19 October 2019.
- Gorman, David (13 September 2019). "PES 2020: Mastery on the pitch, but frustrating off it". The Irish Times. Retrieved 19 October 2019.
- Chalk, Andy (18 December 2019). "Star soccer player Mesut Ozil removed from PES 2020 in China over tweets criticizing the government". PC Gamer. Retrieved 21 February 2020.
- Nunneley, Stephany (27 June 2019). "E3 2019 Game Critics Awards – Final Fantasy 7 Remake wins Best of Show". VG247. Retrieved 25 November 2019.
- Milligan, Mercedes (15 August 2019). "Gamescom Award 2019 Nominees Revealed". Animation Magazine. Retrieved 25 November 2019.
- Tailby, Stephen (20 September 2019). "Days Gone Rides Off with Three Nominations in This Year's Golden Joystick Awards". Push Square. Retrieved 25 November 2019.
- "Titanium Awards 2019". Fun & Serious Game Festival. Archived from the original on 21 November 2019. Retrieved 25 November 2019.
- Winslow, Jeremy (19 November 2019). "The Game Awards 2019 Nominees Full List". GameSpot. Retrieved 25 November 2019.
- "Hong Kong Premier League to play out on PES 2020 amid coronavirus suspension". South China Morning Post. 12 April 2020. Retrieved 21 April 2020.