Following yesterday’s news that Konami has rebranded its soccer series Pro Evolution Soccer to eFootball and will make the game free-to-play on all platforms, the company confirmed today that not everything will be free. Offline modes such as the Master League, the game’s career mode, will be sold in the future as DLC.
EFootball is set to be released in early autumn worldwide first on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, and PC, with a mobile version for Android and iOS coming later. At launch, only friendlies featuring Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Manchester United, Juventus, Arsenal, Corinthians, São Paulo, Flamengo, and River Plate will be available for free, alongside cross-generation matchmaking.
“EFootball cross-platform online matches will be further improved with a new engine and adjusted to take *full* advantage of each platform,” Konami said. “In addition, offline modes such as ‘Master League’ will be sold in the future as optional DLC on all compatible devices.”
It’s unclear how much Konami will charge for the Master League DLC, but it could be expensive given that’s the franchise’s signature mode. With this strategy, Konami intends to charge its customers only for the content they’re keen to pay.
The Master League was introduced to PES in 1999 and is a mode where you create and manage your own team, starting with a squad full of fictional and average players. These fictional players, especially the striker Castolo, have become iconic within the PES community. But for the first time in the game’s history, the mode will be sold as optional DLC.
