Konami not banking on next-gen adoption rate

PES 2014

Konami is sceptical of the adoption rate of the next-generation consoles, and will focus on the current-gen development of Pro Evolution Soccer 2014 as a result.

Konami marketing executive, Manorito Hosoda was questioned about the lack of PS4 and Xbox One announcements for PES 2014, and Hosoda explained that Konami “wants to make a good game” before jumping to next-gen consoles.

“We’re not sure how quickly the uptake of the next generation will go”, Hosoda said.

“The fan base is with the current gen, and before moving on we want to make a good game with the new engine.”

Even though Konami’s football game rival, EA’s FIFA is heading to Xbox One and PS4, Konami believes that the install base for current-gen is much more important at the moment than the next-gen, which will be extremely small at launch.

“We’re kind of damned if we do and damned if we don’t,” said Konami’s Jon Murphy. “I think we’re in a slightly different position [to FIFA], because we’ve been criticised in the past about producing a ‘next gen’ version when we weren’t ready”.

During the emergence of the PS3 and Xbox 360, Konami struggled to port its current PES engine from PS2 and Xbox to the next-gen, and they don’t want to encounter the same problems.

“We can’t get away with producing a version that isn’t absolutely s***-hot on next generation.

“I think we want to be confident when we do bring something out and not in a position where people are criticising us for producing a sloppy, second rate port. We’re going to produce something that puts us back to where we should be in terms of quality”.

PES 2014 runs on Konami’s Fox Engine, and is scheduled for a release in late 2013.

Source: CVG

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