PES 2021 may not come with any mind-blowing features or Next Gen optimisation, but “Season Update” is proving to a popular move so far.
Here’s everything we know about the upcoming release from Konami.
Latest News – Juventus Club Edition Pre-Order
For any Juventus fans out there, there’s a treat in store for you.
For just £5 / $5 more, you can pick up the Juventus Club Edition with a whole host of extras:
- Iconic Moment Cristiano Ronaldo in myClub
- A full Juventus club squad in myClub
- Classic Juventus digital kit
- Juventus Original in-game menu theme
- *PS4 Exclusive* An exclusive menu theme and avatar
- 3 Contract Tickets x30 weeks (Renew 90 player contracts over 30 weeks) in myClub
This also applies for the other Partner Clubs, with a Lionel Messi Iconic Moment for the Barcelona Edition, Oliver Kahn for Bayern Munich, David Beckham at Manchester United and Dennis Bergkamp for Arsenal.
Release Date
PES 2021 Season Update will be arriving on Tuesday, 15 September 2020.
The new Season Update will come to PS4, Xbox One and PC (via Steam).
PES 2021 Season Update Explained
Konami has confirmed that they have made the decision to launch this year’s PES as a streamlined offering in the form of a “season update”.
This year also marks a quarter of a century since the very first PES title was released.
READ MORE: PES 2021 SEASON UPDATE – Full Breakdown
To commemorate this important milestone, and show gratitude to their fans, Konami has announced that this year’s PES will launch at an affordable anniversary price and will also come with several bonuses.
Licences
Pro Evo shocked us all last year and bagged the exclusive rights to Juventus.
For the first time, FIFA had to make up a name and they were called Piemonte Calcio in FIFA 20.
Konami look to have continued their quest in Serie A, potentially adding Roma to their exclusive ranks.
However, both Milan clubs have signed mutli-year deals with EA which is a blow to PES 2021 as Serie A will not be fully licensed.
That said, we know AS Roma will not appear on FIFA 21 – opening the door to an exclusive PES deal.
PES 2021 Confirmed Partner Clubs
- Juventus (Exclusive)
- Barcelona
- Bayern Munich
- Manchester United
- Arsenal
- Corinthians
- Sao Paulo
Leagues & Tournaments
Euro 2020 is confirmed to return for PES 2021 after the tournament was delayed until next summer.
Other licensed leagues we expect to return are Italy’s Serie A, French Ligue 1 and the Brazilian Brasileirao Serie A.
PES 2020’s licensed leagues and tournaments were:
- Euro 2020
- Italian Serie A
- Italian Serie B
- French Ligue 1
- French Ligue 2
- Brazilian Brasileirao Serie A
- Brazilian Brasileirao Serie B
- Russian Premier League
- Belgian Pro League
- Danish Superliga
- Argentinian Superliga
- Thai League 1
Stadiums
PES 2020 had some of the world’s finest stadiums and could now include the Stadio Olimpico.
It included the Nou Camp of Barcelona, Manchester United’s Old Trafford and Bayern Munich’s Allianz Arena.
What other iconic venues can we expect to feature?
Euro 2020 (or is it now 2021?) venues Wembley Stadium and the Krestovsky Stadium (home of Zenit St Petersburg) are arriving in PES 2020 via DLC, and with the tournament being delayed a year, expect them to stick around for 2021.
Football game community website FIFPlay have commenced a PES 2021 Stadium vote.
The current front runners are Elland Road (Leeds United), Vodafone Arena (Besiktas) and Sukru Saracoglu Stadium (Fenerbahce).
Official Cover
No surprises here, Lionel Messi once again fronts up PES 2021 – with a nod to the Barca star’s stellar career.
With PES 2021 marking the franchise’s 25th anniversary, we can see various versions of Messi from various stages of his career.
Trailer
The official PES twitter shared the new Season Update trailer and it looks great!
Check out the trailer below:
Next-Gen Trailer
Konami has made the decision to release this year’s PES game as “season update” rather than a full game, so that they can focus on their next-gen debut.
Well now, the game developers have given us a first look at what PES could look like on next-gen and boy, does it look good!
This next-gen title is being developed with an updated engine that will bring staggering improvements to all areas of the game.
This engine may well be the Unreal Engine 5, which was showcased in an impressive demo earlier this year.
What can you expect? Well, if it is this game engine, expect to see photorealistic graphics, next-level ‘real-time’ lighting effects and also incredible audio!
Konami has also confirmed that there will be large updates for both myClub and Master League.
Konami aims to begin testing of their next-gen title sometime in mid-2021, with an estimated release date later in the same year.
You can find Konami’s full statement here.
Price
PES 2021 Season Update will cost just £24.99 / $29.99 and is available on PS4, Xbox One and PC (Steam)!
Alternatively, you can pre-order a special Club Edition which will set you back £29.99 / $34.99.
The Club Editions include versions for Arsenal, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Juventus and Manchester United.
It looks like loyal PES fans will be rewarded!
Loyalty Discount
The Loyalty Discount is in place to recognise PES’s most dedicated players and gives players a 20% discount when they pre-order a Club Edition of PES 21 through PES 2020.
READ MORE: PES 2021 Licences
Great news for the player-base to go alongside the fantastic looking trailer reveal.
Demo
According to reports we could expect to see a PES 2021 demo coming in a very soon.
This is largely based on when the last demo was released for PES 2020, which was Tuesday, 30 July for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
If we take this date and predict from there, we could see the PES 2021 demo available anytime from Tuesday, 28 July.
That said, if PES 2021 is just an update of PES 2020, would there be any need for a demo?
Master League career mode
PES 2020 made some great strides with their Master League career mode that made it much more competitive with FIFA.
It is good to see this kind of investment in a career mode within a context where pay-to-win gaming is growing in My Club and FUT.
Although no new significant features are coming, we may be receiving new managers with Frank Lampard, Pep Guardiola and Ryan Giggs all featuring in the game’s trailer.
Next Gen
With both the PS5 and Xbox Series X boasting impressive specs that will help bridge the gap to the PC, it is looking more and more possible that cross-platform play will be possible on next-gen consoles.
Both the new PlayStation and Xbox are expected to hit during the 2020 holiday period, with some speculation that they will arrive in late November.
This means PES 2021 will first be available on the current generation of consoles, PS4 & Xbox One, and should be playable on PS5 and Xbox Series X by backwards compatibility or Smart Delivery.
Will PES 2021 be optimised for Next-Gen?
Taking PES 2021 and optimising it so it can use the full power of Xbox Series X and PS5 seems like a great idea, but how likely is it?
PES 2021 is most likely not going to be optimised for Xbox Series X, or PS5, as Konami is already teasing PES 2022 on NextGen.
Is this a good move? We think it is, as it means that when we do get PES 2022 on next-gen, it’s guaranteed to deliver on performance, looks and gameplay.
READ MORE: Everything you need to know about FIFA 21
The post PES 2021: Release Date, Licences, Season Update, Price, Pre-Order, PS5, Xbox Series X & more appeared first on RealSport.
Ernestina Saenz Salcido is a reporter for News Lair. She mostly writes on her free time about gadgets and tech news. When she’s not working she takes care of her 2 daughters.
