It was announced back in July that Konami was wrapping up the long-running Pro Evolution Soccer series in favour of a brand-new free-to-play experience called 'eFootball', and now we know it will launch for Xbox on September 30.

eFootball will utilise a new engine compared to PES (Unreal Engine instead of the FOX Engine), and its initial launch will come with nine licensed teams and six stadiums for offline play, along with cross-generation matchmaking (Xbox Series X|S vs. Xbox One) with weekly online events using pre-set teams, providing rewards such as GP.

Then, later this Autumn, "several core features" will be added to the game including 'Creative Teams' (seemingly a replacement for PES's 'myClub' mode'), and the platform’s new monetisation model; "re-balanced to ensure that all players can reach the same potential, regardless of how they acquire in-game items."

Here's what Seitaro Kimura, eFootball™ series Producer had to say about the launch:

“With ‘eFootball’ being the name of our overall platform, ‘eFootball 2022’ is the official title for our first season of content. Platform updates bringing new functionality, such as cross-platform matchmaking and mobile controller support, will happen frequently over the coming months and will always be free.

Future content updates and game modes will be offered to players as either free or premium options. We look forward to getting players on the pitch and receiving their feedback.”

Konami also has plans to "unify the experience across console, PC and mobile", allowing for cross-platform matchmaking between all controller-based players. More features such as 'Edit Mode' will be added down the line, too.

We're intrigued to see how this one plays at launch, as the initial trailers for eFootball 2022 (and the recent gameplay test on Xbox) left a lot to be desired. Let's hope the poor first impressions aren't representative of the final product.

Will you be trying out eFootball 2022 on Xbox when it launches this month? Let us know down below.