The long-running Pro Evolution Soccer franchise developed by Konami looks like it will be undergoing some fairly substantial changes moving forward. For one, PES no longer has some major licenses for AC Milan and FC Internazionale Milano giving long-time competing franchise FIFA a leg up.

Konami has been in a fairly substantial development rut since parting ways with Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima, but Pro Evolution Soccer has always been a consistent franchise for the developer to put out. Now though, it seems like Konami is dropping its famous Fox engine in favor of developing PES 2022 in Unreal engine.

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For those who may not be familiar with the Fox engine, many of Konami’s games from the last eight years were developed using this engine. The engine was built by Konami and used for major game releases like Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain and Ground Zeroes, Metal Gear Survive, and even the P.T. demo. The engine has also been used for PES titles from 2013 to 2020. Needless to say, Konami has gotten plenty of use from the Fox engine.

Still, PES 2020 continues to receive updates in the Fox engine. In fact, Konami fairly recently revealed DLC based on a canceled soccer tournament. However, Konami has revealed that the next full-fledged title in the series will instead be developed on the Unreal engine. To be more specific, this news was confirmed by a brand new trailer on the official PES YouTube channel teasing the future of the franchise.

The description of the trailer reads, “As the industry stands at the precipice of an exciting new generation of consoles, we believe that now is the perfect time to share some of our plans for the future of the PES franchise with you… This title is being developed with an updated engine that will enable us to dazzle you with staggering improvements to all areas of the game.” Players can expect more realistic models and animations, enhanced physics, and photorealistic visuals among other things. Whether or not the next major installment in PES will stand toe-to-toe in graphical fidelity with FIFA 21 on next-generation hardware remains to be seen, of course.

Yet, the switch to Unreal Engine is not the only big shake-up for the PES franchise. Konami also announced that the PES 2021 will not be a full-fledged release like every prior yearly installment of the franchise. Apparently, Konami did not have time to develop a fully fleshed-out version of PES 2021. While some confusion initially surrounded the announcement, Konami has confirmed by way of IGN that the game is not just an update to PES 2020, but will be a standalone game released at a lower price instead.

The next installment in the Pro Evolution Soccer franchise is estimated to release sometime in late 2021.

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Source: Konami