Euro 2020, the planet’s biggest football tournament outside the World Cup itself, was supposed to take place last year. It was instead postponed to this Summer for obvious reasons, and to celebrate, Konami’s official PES version of the tournament will begin by featuring…woefully inaccurate and/or out-of-date rosters.
PES 2020’s Euro 2020 update, which was actually released last year—remember, PES 2021 itself was just an update to PES 2020—is currently using a bunch of old kits (jerseys, for the Americans reading) and team rosters, since the sides competing in the tournament won’t be naming their full and final squads until the end of May.
Rather than simply update the game as soon as those squads are announced, though, Konami instead updates PES 2020 via large and scheduled “data packs”, meaning that the game won’t get the Euro 2020 squads until the end of June, when Data Pack 7.0 drops. By then the tournament is already halfway done (it starts on June 11) and half the teams have gone home.
At least Data Pack 6.0, which includes the latest kits for each competing team, was released this week? So you can at least look the part? I dunno, I’m trying to find the silver lining in this, but this is 2021, the fact any of this is happening in a major sports game, let alone one with such a big license, is just so sad to see.
Despite all its missteps over the last decade, I still love playing Pro Evolution Soccer every year, and try valiantly to sing its praises to my FIFA-loving friends at every opportunity. But man, the more time goes on, and the more amateur-hour shit like this remaining fans have to put up with, the harder Konami makes it.
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