Konami Launches 'New Football Game Online Performance Test' for PES 2022

Konami has launched an open beta for its next “new football experience”, presumably PES 2022, and its available to download now on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S.

The open beta is meant to check the quality of online matchmaking and connection to allow the developers to make improvements, as well as to survey participants in order to provide “invaluable information” to improve the game experience.

Running from 24/06/2021 to 08/07/2021, the New Football Game Online Performance Test feels like quite an early build of the game, with a lack of commentary tracks and some ropey graphics - we've tested it out, of course, for science. Players can pick from Manchester United, Bayern Munich, Juventus, and Barcelona, and take on other players in quick online match.

Strangely, Konami hasn't mentioned the names Pro Evolution Soccer, PES, or eFootball anywhere within the announcement. However, a quick dive into the player survey does reveal a URL reading ‘pes2022obtsurvey', so unless that's a placeholder while Konami looks to make a major rebrand to PES, it seems likely that this product will end up being PES 2022. This will also be the first Pro Evo game to use Unreal Engine, with every game since PES 2014 using Kojima's Fox Engine.

Expectations will be high for this upcoming Pro Evolution Soccer game, with the PES development team having taken a year off from the annual schedule in 2020 to fully focus on improving the series for next-gen consoles. Instead, Konami released a simple Season Update for PES 2021, with no gameplay changes outside of squad updates.

You can download the mysterious New Football Game Online Performance Test on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S now, and find the survey details and more over on the Konami website here.