'eFootball' won't get Master League mode until 2023

Konami's 'Pro Evolution Soccer' rebrand keeps making life difficult for itself

For readers of a certain vintage, Master League was the cherry on top of the 'Pro Evolution Soccer' cake, but the new iteration 'eFootball' won't have a Master League mode until 2023.

The game has had a rough start to life since launching last year, and the game won't have its highly-demanded Master League mode until some time next year per the developers.

The kicker? The mode will be paid content.

In a tweet published on Tuesday, the devs laid out its plan for free content for the rest of 2022, including Lobby Matches, editing features and cross-platform play.

In terms of paid content, Master League won't debut until 2023, while more licensed teams and leagues will be made available by the end of the year.

It’s not clear whether the existing ‘Match’ mode, which only gives players access to nine licensed teams for offline and CPU matches, will be getting extra teams as paid content, or whether there’s a separate League mode coming.

eFootball was Konami's big gamble to reinvent the once-iconic 'Pro Evolution Soccer' series, which was a major rival of 'FIFA' back in the PS2 era for best footballing game on the market.

The game launched in what could only be charitably described as a broken state last September, which prompted Konami to delay the release of it's first major update from November 2021 to April 2022.

Since the patch, the game is performing better and has more licenses and modes, but the game seems to have lost the dressing room already.

At time of writing, the game is down for a four-day maintenance period which hasn't gone down well with the players who remain.

With the 'FIFA' games undergoing a dramatic shift, there may well be a market for fans who want an alternative to 'FIFA'.

'eFootball' still nominally plays like 'Pro Evolution Soccer' - can Konami take advantage of a slip at the top of the table?

Based on them not prioritising the Master League mode, they may be heading the way of Manchester United, with all style and no substance.