Emiliano Spinelli, esports champion who played with Arsenal and Roma, reveals the behind the scenes of the false start of the Konami title (and how to recover it).
Paolo Sirio
November 24, 2021
eFootball 2022 had a troubled launch last September, due to particularly marked technical problems and a surprising lack of modes. Dozens of bugs and a not at all favorable climate that quickly created around the heir of PES convinced Konami to give up the release of a version 1.0, initially scheduled for November and now destined for spring 2022, and to postpone the edition mobile at a later date. If this will undoubtedly bring benefits to the quality of the game, already improved with a first emergency update, there are many doubts about the goodness of the Japanese house’s decisions, which have left the wide esports scene created around the series so far, in addition to gamers, on foot. in the traditional sense.
The PES Champion –
Gazzetta.it talked about it with Emiliano Spinelli, known in the industry as S-Venom, active in the competition for 14 years. Spinelli has won various Italian national titles, one in Germany, he was European vice-champion and consequently participated in the PES world championships; in the eFootball Pro (the PES Champions League, so to speak) he represented Arsenal first and last year Roma.
The eFootball transfer market –
“We were in the transfer market period, because this is the time of year when you negotiate with the clubs; the news we received from the clubs was that the competition was due to start in March, with some preview events and tournaments around January, and in recent weeks we were starting to close the contracts “, is S-Venom’s memory of when, a few weeks ago, Konami announced the postponement of version 1.0 of eFootball 2022. Something that the professional player still cannot understand, because the emergency update mentioned above (v. 0.9.1) is considered “very good, has solved many problems in terms of gameplay “and the” thing is even more angry. Having experienced a dramatic transition from PS2 to PS3 and from PS3 to PS4 first hand, learn from your mistakes. This is another issue that makes us pro players so angry: we have competed on a game like PES 2014 that it was really horrendous, why don’t you have to let me do it on this one, which once assimilated was enjoyable? “.
The bitterness is dictated by the fact that, without version 1.0, eFootball 2022 has not integrated the Creative Teams mode that will be the basis of its export. With this postponement to spring, which could mean both March and June, the wait for the start of the season will be even longer. “We were supposed to leave the second week of March. We knew this year would no longer be 3v3 but 1v1 on the new mode Creative Teams and that in any case the teams would have 3 players, it would have been a sort of round trip in which two players played and rotated every day. And it would be online, it wouldn’t be live this year. However, obviously, they have changed their plans further and we will see what the clubs will tell us in the coming weeks “.
The problem for pro players –
With this half of the football export world stopped, the situation becomes very complicated for real athletes who have dedicated important parts of their lives to this discipline. Some had started training, taking advantage of the first couple of weeks to master the new commands, although it lacked an online challenge as players are mixed in bulk and not by skill level.
“In recent weeks, I had put some projects on standby pending various contacts with the clubs. There are biblical times of communication between Konami’s Japanese team and clubs. Now what will happen is that the development team will communicate with the export department. The export department in turn will have to redo the calls with the various clubs (which it had already made in recent weeks, but obviously the plans have changed) and will have to communicate the dates of the competition, if it starts “, explains the former Roma. “And so now we will have to wait these weeks to understand if and when they will do something in terms of competitions. Why obviously the football club has no interest in contracting a boy for a period without competitions “.
At the root of eFootball 2022 problems –
A little big betrayal of a community built, with a pioneering vision, years ago and that was not called into question in such a delicate transition moment, in which we went from PES to eFootball, from the proprietary graphics engine Fox Engine to Unreal Engine Epic Games (mandatory step to land with the same title on smartphones and tablets) and from one generation of consoles to another (a step that has always penalized Konami in the past). “You have a very important community of pro players and esports, which is one of the most historic, the old PES League existed since 2002. You have great players – use them as a beta tester. Who better than a pro player to find bugs and defects in a game ?, ”observes Spinelli.
“We have no communication with them” and this is a confirmation of the feelings that the press has always had about the Japanese giant: Gazzetta.it had tried to test the waters to talk to Konami to include an official comment but, apparently, until the launch of 1.0 it won’t move much from that point of view. Furthermore, already at the time of the original release the press had not been encouraged to discuss the subject (with codes for reviews or particular promotions), a sign that evidently they knew about the state of the game and did not want to advertise it too much.
How export to PES worked –
The disappointment for the false start of eFootball 2022 is mainly dictated by the last two-three seasons of PES, which had been very positive and had positioned the product as an alternative diametrically opposed to FIFA. S-Venom agrees with the observation that PES is comparable to Serie A in terms of pace and play, FIFA to the Premier League for its show vocation and supersonic speed. “Yes, PES is more tactical, FIFA focuses on entertainment and entertainment. They are good examples, ”he comments.
“Even at the export level, speaking of the latest eSerie A carried out on both PES and FIFA, on PES you saw that Roma (which is my case) were playing with Dzeko and Zaniolo, Lazio with Immobile; if instead you see the FIFA Serie A, ok Roma is not there, but Lazio and Inter played with Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar, because everything about FUT takes place there. Hats off for the proceeds they make, but football is something else and PES basically stood as a bulwark for those who want to play a football game and not just a video game, which FIFA is; it is an excellent entertainment product, but not of virtual football “.
But that’s not all to throw away –
Clearly, this doesn’t mean it’s all to be thrown away. Spinelli believes, for example, that Konami made a good job on dribbling, now “more enjoyable and fun. This is something that saves and does not lead me to boredom, because the last PES in the long run, playing at a high level, are resolved on the physical and tactical part. This is a bit more pleasant from this point of view ”. Furthermore, “I have always supported the idea of the free-to-play system for sportsmen, especially games that are graphically updated every 5-6 years; at most you make me pay 10 euros for an update of clubs and squads, but for me sports games should all be launched with this formula “.
The main flaws, on the other hand, they are attributed to the “defensive system, where you often don’t feel like you are in control of what you want to do, at the level of intervention”. The default camera was also rejected, “with this constant seasickness and the zoom in-zoom out, which, however, can be changed. The animations, the graphics: it is the last aspect in a competitive game, but the glance at least of the players has always been a flagship of PES (the atmosphere no, FIFA has always been superior at the stadium level and atmosphere). And then the commentary: I don’t want Caressa, but they have always been the same phrases for years: I always put the Spanish commentary on day one “.
How to shoot eFootball 2022 –
The pro player is striking because he has a very practical view of how to fix eFootball 2022, on one side; on the other hand, his words leave a bad taste in the mouth because they give the impression of the displeasure and the state of suspension of a community that deserved more, and that probably was involved from the very first moment in the re-foundation of the series.
Right now, “at least I would release the complete teams (in the game there are, in the first week it allowed you to play them all, while now there is an event on Monday where you can only select a certain number of clubs), a sort of quick game where I can change team at every game, which doesn’t change anything in terms of progression but at least let me play and have fun. And above all I would unlock the offline modes, at least that allows me to play 10 minutes offline with all the teams. Then, if you want to launch this mode in March… that then too, ‘spring’ can mean 21 March as well as 21 June. For me the fear, always relative, is the greatest that they say see you in September or we won’t see each other again“.
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