eFootball Vs FIFA 22: the preliminary comparison

eFootball Vs FIFA 22

It took a little longer than usual, but in the end Konami and EA Sports spilled the beans. Waiting to return to live the next football season after the conclusion of Euro 2020, the two historical competitors in the field of football simulations have in fact provided the details that we have been waiting for several months now, also reserving some pretty good surprises.

If FIFA 22 corresponds more or less to what was legitimate to expect from Electronic Arts as we have also seen on the occasion of our recent test, PES 2022 has been revolutionized by Konami, who wanted to rewrite his entire game to start from the name. Yesterday's announcement of eFootball surprised everyone, especially for the decision to abandon the historic name Pro Evolution Soccer, or PES. As a sign of breaking with the past, space will be left only for eFootball, actually already used as a prefix by some edition now.

There is still a lot to know about both titles, but what has been revealed so far can still be enough to make a first comparison between eFootball and FIFA 22: let's go and see how they will be different, and what they will look like.

Free to play against tradition

In addition to the name change with which eFootball abandons the historic abbreviation PES, the other bomb dropped by Konami concerns the decision to make its football simulation a game free to play, thus making it available to everyone at no additional cost. This will be valid at least for its basic form, arriving at the beginning of autumn, in which it will be possible to play by choosing only some exclusive licensed clubs such as Barcelona and Juventus. The rest of the contents will be published later, adding to the basic version of eFootball the modalities that for now bear the name of Online Leagues and Team Building Mode. If the latter could correspond to a new version of myClub, we do not know what will happen to the Master League, one of the historical modes of football according to Konami. These contents will be offered through free and paid DLC, in order to give each player the possibility to assemble and pay only for the things actually used.

A real earthquake could therefore upset eFootball compared to the PES we knew until a year ago, given that Konami has chosen to follow the path traced by Fortnite and colleagues, so far remained unpublished for sports titles. What Konami promises is, however, a parallel and three hundred and sixty degrees support for all platforms, both home and mobile, which will even give the possibility to play cross-platform matches between consoles, PCs and mobile devices.

The proposed changes from Konami, EA Sports responds from the point of view of the formula with a choice of a conservative type. We would not have expected anything different, considering the numbers that the FIFA series has been able to grind for years both through annual sales, but above all through the Ultimate Team mode. A real battleship that, in spite of the twisting of some noses, continues edition after edition to attract a very high number of players, to the point of starting to influence real football in turn through its "cards" and its atmospheres. glossy.

At this point it is legitimate to wonder if Konami will be able to move the balance to its side thanks to the free to play formula of eFootball. To respond with a sufficient degree of certainty it will obviously be necessary to wait for the definitive versions of both titles, especially to see what will be the monetization policy that the Japanese company will implement. In fact, it is clear that without a purchase price for eFootball, you will have to leverage microtransactions, probably offering modular content and new methods to those who want to buy them. Beyond this aspect to be verified in the future, what immediately entices the new dimension of eFootball concerns Konami's promise to offer significant updates not only to the player pool, but also to the gameplay dynamics that will no longer be subjected to annual issues.

Reasoning by extremes, it may therefore happen to find yourself already in April with a product with significant changes compared to the game that arrived in stores in the fall, without having to pay and wait for the new edition to have access to these innovations, as happened in the past.

A new dimension

Having made the necessary distinctions between the economic model of eFootball and that of FIFA 22, let's see what the landing will mean for both on the new videogame generation. As already mentioned, also thanks to the use of Unreal Engine for the realization of eFootball Konami promises players a similar experience on practically all platforms, putting all gamers on the same level. In other words, there won't be, at least initially, exclusive features for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X | S or PC. On the latter the graphic detail will probably be better, but in fact there will be no elements precluded to the owners of the old consoles or mobile, so much so that you can play against them without limitations.

FIFA 22 will move instead in this case too. in a diametrically opposite way, reserving the innovations offered by its HyperMotion Technology only to the latest arrivals from Sony and Microsoft. The most disappointed by this choice will obviously be the players willing to play FIFA 22 on PC, for which, however, at this point eFootball could represent a greedy alternative. This means that the matches, as well as the FUT markets, will be closed between the various platforms, creating different economies, balances and communities.

As for the console world, Konami, as already mentioned, will ensure to make matches between one platform and another, as well as between one generation and another. In short, full freedom, at least on paper, but in practice it will be necessary to carefully test to verify that there are no disparities between those who play with a higher frame rate and those who, perhaps, do it from mobile.

More animations for everyone

The aspect on which both eFootball and FIFA 22 seem to converge at least up to a certain point is the presence within them of a set of enriched animations, which they will offer the player a more realistic rendering of the game dynamics than in the past. Although both competitors seem to have spent some time creating new animations, the focus on the application areas of the two development teams seems to have focused on different areas at least for now. For eFootball and its Motion Matching the main emphasis was placed on one-on-one situations, thanks to the collaboration with specialists of the genre such as Andrés Iniesta for the attack and Gerard Piqué for the defense.

FIFA 22 and its HyperMotion Technology instead speak to us first of a more organic general movement as regards the behavior of the twenty-two players on the field, captured in real game situations thanks to the data captured by tracing as many real players using the special Xsens suits. Thanks to the latter, in reality even the movements of the singles seem to have been improved to manage in a more realistic way the situations where the graphic engine had stumbled a bit so far. The trials of both titles seem to suggest tangible variations with respect to the game dynamics found in the old editions, thus leaving the fans of both football simulations hopeful.

Licenses

L he last line of confrontation today between eFootball and FIFA 22 can only go to touch the licenses, historically one of the main aspects on which the two contenders compete. Also this year the fight will be to the sound of exclusives, with eFootball particularly active for what concerns our Serie A. Atalanta, Juventus, Rome and Lazio will in fact be present exclusively in the title created by Konami, which will start a partnership with Napoli already this season. The Neapolitan club will then be added starting from the 2022/23 championship to the series of exclusives. In the European field, on the other hand, the names of Barcelona, ​​Bayern Munich, Arsenal and Manchester United stand out.

FIFA 22 will respond as usual with its huge list of licenses, linked to clubs but above all to competitions. Once again the charm of the Champions League will belong to the EA Sports game, as well as the other UEFA Europa League competition and other trophies around the world. As for the national leagues, the Premier League clubs with their stadiums will once again be present, as well as those of Liga and Bundesliga, naturally excluding the clubs that have sold the exclusivity to Konami. Also with regard to Serie A, surprises could come, given the presence of EA Sports among the sponsors in the recent presentation of the calendars of the Italian top league.

For the moment our comparison between eFootball and FIFA 22 stops here : we will not fail to return to the subject during the next few months, for a challenge that between the transition to the new generation and changes in the sales formulas promises to be more crackling than ever.

Have you noticed any errors?