Despite Konami struggling for many years to compete with EA’s FIFA franchise, Pro Evolution Soccer has long been considered by many as the most realistic simulation of football that money can buy.
With the longevity of eFootball Pro Evolution Soccer 2020 starting to wane as the football season draws to a close, attention has turned to the release of eFootball Pro Evolution Soccer 2021. The biggest question on everyone’s lips though is what will the PES 2021 release date be?
We’re expecting Konami to officially announce PES 2021 sooner rather than later, and with that, we’ll get a better idea of what we can expect come launch. There’s also the question regarding whether or not PES 2021 will be released on the PS5 and Xbox Series X.
Here’s a look at everything know about PES 2021 so far, from when the game will release, how much PES 2021 will cost, as well as what licences and game modes fans can expect come launch day later this year.
PES 2021 Release Date
When will PES 2021 release? That’s the question on many fans’ lips, but as of yet, there’s no official release date for the game.
Last year, PES 2020 released on September 10th, while PES 2019 released earlier than we’ve come to expect by launching on August 28th, 2018.
Unfortunately, it looks unlikely that PES 2021 will be released in August, and while we are hopeful that we’ll get a September release, that also looks a tough ask given how the coronavirus has impacted many game releases over the past few months.
Konami has remained tight-lipped on the game, but FIFA 21 will not be released until October 9th – that’s the latest time of the year that the series has launched.
Given that EA has had to push back the release of FIFA 21, it looks likely that the PES 2021 release date will be set for some time in October 2020.
PES 2021 Trailer
As of yet, there is no trailer for PES 2021.
In 2019, Konami released the trailer for PES 2020 at E3, which took place in mid-June. As Konami are leaving it late to announce the game, there’s a good chance that the trailer will drop alongside the official announcement.
Stay tuned!
PES 2021 Club Licenses
In recent years Konami has worked hard to secure more club and league licenses than ever before. This has seen the likes of Manchester United, Barcelona, Juventus and many more become fully licensed within PES.
As for PES 2021 club licenses, we do know for sure that Juventus and Barcelona will once again be fully licensed as both clubs have previously signed long-term partnerships with Konami, which will see them feature for several years to come. We will also see Arsenal return as a licensed club.
Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid are both rumoured to be licensed this year, but this has not been confirmed by Konami.
Konami also currently have the league rights to Serie A and Serie B. While we know that licences are not cheap to acquire, fans of PES 2021 will be hoping that at the very least there is not a reduction in the number of licensed clubs and leagues.
PES 2021 Game Modes & Improvements
As of yet, we don’t know what improvements and new features Konami will be adding to modes such as Master League and myClub in PES 2021.
If PES 2021 does release on next-gen consoles, there’ll definitely be an improvement to the game’s visuals, with the lighting, pitch and crowds all likely to be massively improved. For many years the atmosphere in Pro Evolution Soccer games has felt lacklustre, so hopefully the move to next-gen will see stadiums feel more alive than ever before.
As for Master League, many players are desperate to see some serious improvements and new features to liven up the mode, with the UI and transfer system, in particular, being areas that are often criticised. In PES 2020, Konami added press conferences, as well as cutscenes to the mode, which while welcome additions, quickly grew stale, not least of which due to their lack of influence on anything within the game at all.
Fingers crossed we’ll be seeing a major overhaul of Master League in PES 2021.
PES 2021 Platforms
Will PES 2021 be playable on next-gen consoles? It would seem odd for Konami to give both the PS5 and Xbox Series X a miss for this year’s game; however, we won’t know for sure what platforms we’ll be able to play PES 2021 on until Konami officially announce the game.
It’s almost certain that it will release on PS4, Xbox One and PC as it has done for the past few years.
If PES 2021 does release on next-gen consoles though, it would seem unlikely that they would be launch titles. EA is bringing FIFA 21 to the PS5 and Xbox Series X at a later date, and it would be likely that Konami will be following suit.
Anyone who plans to play PES 2021 on PC will likely be disappointed, however, if they are expecting the PC version of the game to be the same as the next-gen one. For that, we’ll probably have to wait until the release of PES 2022.
PES 2021 Price
How much will PES 2021 cost? There’s no reason to suspect that this year’s title will cost any more or any less than previous versions.
That means we can expect the price of PES 2021 to be set to around £50 or $60 for those in the US.