PES’s free-to-play successor eFootball has a $40 DLC pack that can’t be used for 2 months

Pro Evolution Soccer’s successor eFootball has a $40 ‘premium’ pre-order including microtransaction content that can’t be used until two months after launch.

Although the game is free-to-play, a pre-order has just gone live on the Xbox and PlayStation stores revealing an “eFootball 2022 Premium Player Pack”, priced at $39.99 / £32.98.

This bundle includes the base eFootball game, 6 ‘Chance Deals’, 2800 eFootball Coins and a further 2 Chance Deals for pre-ordering in advance.

However, none of the Chance Deals or eFootball Coins can be used until “after the update scheduled for mid-November of 2021”.

Chance Deals let players sign one of 16 “top-tier Ambassador and partner club players”.

According to a description that was on the eFootball website this morning but has since been removed, each time players use a Chance Deal they get a different player from the list of 16, so they won’t get the same player more than once unless they manually choose to reset the player list.

The bundle can also be purchased more than once, meaning if the now-removed description remains true, players can theoretically spend $80 on all 16 Chance Deal players.

When the game launches on September 30, there will be no players to claim and nowhere for players to spend their eFootball Coins.

Instead, players will only have the option to play friendly matches locally or online, with one of nine teams.

Konami says the game’s first main update in mid-November will include a number of new modes, including Creative Teams, in which players build their own squad similar to FIFA’s Ultimate Team (or the myClub feature in previous PES games).

It’s this mode that will make use of the Chance Deals and eFootball Coins in the pre-order bundle.

Although it certainly appears that players willing to spend $40 can have an early advantage, Konami claims the monetisation model will be “rebalanced to ensure that all players can reach the same potential, regardless of how they acquire in-game items”.

The game will have three currencies – eFootball Coins (premium), eFootball Points (earned through gameplay) and GP (also earned through gameplay).

further reading

1

Konami says PES successor eFootball will be ‘basically a demo’ at launch

The game will only have a limited number of teams on day one

After a certain number of certain match types played, ‘Match Passes’ will reward players with items like a Nominating Contract (which lets them choose a specific player for their team), eFootball Coins or more. Players can also buy a premium ‘Advantage Match Pass’ for “even greater rewards”.

Although the game’s proper name is eFootball, Konami says its first season will be referred to as eFootball 2022.