With the PES 2021 release date of September 15, we wondered if Konami would buck the trend of having a day one update that we’re seeing most games have at launch. Reason being, the company has made it clear that there would not be any major gameplay changes to PES 2021, rather it’s a season update having the latest team and player information.
This would imply that all the necessary data on disc for PS4 and Xbox One for players to play the game without any major downloads. However this may not be the case as we’ve seen with a host of games this generation and it could be that PES 2021 on disc may just be a rebadged version of PES 2020 minus the necessary patches, which would be the bare minimum you should expect given that amount of effort necessary for this year’s release. We reached out to Konami for comment and this is what the company had to say.
“eFootball PES 2021 Season Update is a separate, individual product to PES 2020,” reads an email from a Konami representative. “There will be a day one patch for players to download at launch, but this contains the latest metadata from football leagues and teams that finished their seasons before the new game went gold.”
The statement implies that PES 2021’s disc is not the same as PES 2020 and those who purchase PES 2021 will only have to download a day one patch to update the metadata for leagues and teams. We won’t know for sure what is playable offline until release day. As it stands it looks like that this is not the same situation as Spider-Man PS4’s game of the year edition that shipped with the base game on disc and still required to be updated to its latest version.
Previously Konami announced that PES 2021 would be the last game in the franchise running on its FOX Engine. The PES Development Team shifted Unreal Engine for more realistic player models and animations, better physics, photorealistic visuals, and more. Given that Unreal Engine is supported by more platforms and devices, it is going to be interesting to see if next year’s game releases the same day on mobile as well since the current mobile PES game was built using Unreal Engine. Unreal Engine is also supported on Nintendo Switch which might open the door to a potential debut of the PES series on Nintendo Switch.
PES 2021 physical release India price
While the digital release is priced at Rs. 1,999, the physical release is priced at Rs. 2,199 on both PS4 and Xbox One.
PES 2021 discount for PES 2020 owners
Konami is giving a 20 percent discount on pre-orders for a Club Edition of PES 2021 through PES 2020. This includes PES 2020 Lite.
There will also be a Veteran’s Bonus for those who played myClub in PES 2020.
PES 2021 Season Update releases physically and digitally on September 15 in India for PS4 and Xbox One. The PC version is a digital release on Steam.
