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The Future Of Sports Games?

Konami has announced that rather than releasing a new annual game in the PES football series, it’s offering a “season update” that will launch at a lower price while updating rosters, players, and everything else that gamers care about in a sports game.

The eFootball PES 2021 Season Update will launch on the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC via Steam on September 15th.

Again, this game is an updated edition of eFootball PES 2020 that was launched in September of last year. The new content will be the latest player data and club rosters.

That’s an important change, and one that I hope carries over into other games. It’s exhausting having to buy a new sports game every single year when not enough has changed to substantially validate the purchase.

I currently own FIFA 15 on the PlayStation 4, and I’ve seen no reason to update the game. I don’t play it a ton anymore—friends can only lose so much—but also the game hasn’t evolved a lot from year to year. Maybe at this point, I could get the newest title since I’m six years behind, but I see no reason in buying a new game every year.

And a lot of other players feel the same. A Reddit thread reveals the player frustration that lies in buying a new game every year from developers like EA.

I hope that other franchises like Madden, NBA 2K, and FIFA consider this approach. Lower-priced, annual updates would be much more appealing as a gamer. And I imagine consumers that have refrained from buying new versions of the games would consider staying up-to-date with a release format like this.

New games should be reserved for meaningful evolution in gaming. Not annual cash-grabs (looking at you, Call of Duty).

If you want to know more about what Konami is doing with PES, check out the season update.