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The man behind PES 2018 on everything new
Fans, the PC version, and Usain Bolt. We chat to the man with a plan about what makes PES great this year.
It’s fair to say that there’s a groundswell of hype surrounding PES 2018 at the moment. People who have played it are raving about it and it sounds as though many long-standing complaints are being listened to, and in some cases fixed entirely.
Adam Bhatti, the global product and brand manager for PES, loves the game. In many ways it’s his dream job. He’s an industry veteran who once worked for Ubisoft but is now, certainly in the west at least, the face of PES. He takes the abuse on Twitter when things go wrong, and he's often the first to show new features. But know that when he says he cares: he does. He talks with the excitement you can only generate if you love what you do and that makes it easy to ask about the fans: the people he calls the heartbeat of the game. He’s not just the game’s spokesperson, he’s its evangelist, its figurehead. But he’s keen to make clear that the true authority on the game is the community itself.
“I think it's extremely vital for us to make sure the fans know that we're listening to them, and what they're feeding back is helping us shape the game,” Bhatti tells Red Bull Games. “I think it's really important to know that PES has been here for a long time, it's been celebrated for over the 20 years now, and one of the main reasons why we continue to do what we do is because of the fans. Obviously we have to innovate and we have to make sure that we're chasing our dreams and what we hope is really going to take PES to the next level, but the fans are what keep us going.“
Part of the innovation he mentions has always been how PES plays a great game of football. In years gone by it’s been criticised for its lack of visual fidelity, and of course the ever present dull groaning around licensing issues, but this year is different. If you’ve been paying close attention you’ll know that not only has the game had a very shiny new lick of paint, but the user interface has, too. Finally, it appears the visuals are going to match the gameplay.
Updated visuals and user interface
© Konami
“One hundred percent. I think we've nailed this gameplay thing, even though I think when it comes to what we've done with 2018 is a massive shift; a change, but it's still PES.” Bhatti is interrupted by a huge cheer in the background from other people playing the E3 build of PES 2018 at Liverpool’s Anfield stadium, where our interview is taking place.
“As you can see, people are absolutely enjoying the game, but they're extremely surprised about the gameplay. But visuals are vital because it brings people in easier – I mean, whenever I post a picture about a player face or an animation, suddenly it just goes viral because people love to share those kind of things.”
The question is why now, though? It’s not the start of a new console cycle, so what prompted the UI upgrade? “I think for PES 18 it's a step for us to start this new three-year cycle – at least internally that's what we're calling it, where we're hoping that every year people see PES – ” and he’s interrupted again. Another goal. “And as you can hear now, people are blown away and they can't believe what we've done in one year, because the truth is that it's not been one year, we have taken a lot more time on it.”
Bhatti adds: “That's why this year we've brought in brand-new visuals in terms of the different colours, the brand new HUD, obviously we've got the real-life player images as well, and I think a lot of that did take time to implement, but it's a lot of back-end boring stuff which allows us to do it a little bit easier this year than the last year.”
Bhatti is an AC Milan fan and, given the history of that club, we wondered what potential legends we might be getting in the game. “When you do see some of the legends that we're going to announce later this year which are going to be exclusive to PES, they are huge, but also I think that everybody will be able to recognise or remember them, whether you're young or old.”
Rather than looking back, we turn to the future. One of the major complaints from the community if you’re on Xbox One is that you can’t make use of the tremendous edit files the fans are making. We wanted to know if Xbox fans will ever get to experience this.
How PES is making inroads for 2018
© Konami
“I really hope so”, Bhatti says. “I think it's one of those situations where I'm extremely transparent, even sometimes bringing in Xbox social channels into the conversation, because it really is a case of us being limited by the console, but not necessarily by power – but just by security regulations and rules. There might be possible ways for us to work with certain Microsoft systems like OneDrive, for example, but it gets a little bit tricky for reasons people might not know, but obviously we're dealing with certain users wanting to put in rights which aren't owned by us or Microsoft, which can cause a lot of problems, so it really needs to be independent and sole use of the user, which unfortunately we can't get on the Xbox right now.”
Speaking of different versions of the game, an issue that's being addressed this time is the PC version, which until now, has been lagging behind the PS4 and Xbox One editions. Why did it take so long to get it up to speed?
“We had to focus mainly on our main platforms based on user-size, which is for a lot of companies is going to be console, and it was a case of when we went away from having PC as the best, it was actually the year we moved over to FOX [Konami’s game engine],” Bhatti explains. “So once we went over to FOX we had to relearn, we had to rebuild, and we really focused on making sure the console versions (where most of our fans were) had the best version possible. Not that we didn't want to have the best one for the PC, but based on resources we had to manage it. Again, boring for the fans to know, but it's all about making sure that we are using our team effectively.”
“We've got a fantastic relationship with Nintendo, we are looking at the console in a serious way.”
This year, Bhatti tells us, the PC version is “definitely the best version”, but he’s coy when we ask about a Nintendo Switch version. “Nintendo Switch is fantastic machine, we've got a fantastic relationship with Nintendo, we had a great launch, great success with Super Bomberman R, so we are looking at the console in a serious way, but for now PES 18 has been announced for the formats it's coming out on.”
There'll be a number of activities leading up to the Gamescom expo in Germany in August, Bhatti tells us, including news on myClub, but he’s excited about the fact you can create a team with your friend (online, or couch co-op), though this year’s myClub will be a refinement rather than revolution, it seems. Whether or not the fans will be up in arms about that (it's an area that needs works), we’ll find out later, but at least Random Selection Mode is coming back.
News on myClub is coming soon
© Konami
“Actually it's always been something we wanted to bring back, but we've been so focused on getting everything else right”, Bhatti tells us, “wherever we do surveys and talk about old features and what to bring back, it's always there super high, so we've brought it back and we've given it a different take where we've still got the same concept of picking three or four teams and getting a random selection of players, but also after that you have this kind of rock, paper, scissors thing where you're stealing your opponent's players and him doing the same back as well.”
The currently announced licensed teams have had work done to them, with Barcelona having an even more realistic appearance thanks to extreme levels of detail through capturing “real data for the lighting, for the pitch turf as well, for the tunnels, locker rooms”, and of course the sound will be on point, too. These are all yet more improvements over PES 2017, which was already a terrific game.
While Bhatti’s favourite player in the game is currently Paris Saint-Germain and Italy’s Marco Verratti (he’s a player that “really shows PES at its best”), we were dying to know if recently announced star Usain Bolt has played PES yet, or if the team at Konami have played against him.
“No, we haven't yet actually, but he's super interested to play as himself, and that's one of the main reasons he hasn't yet. We're hoping to have a really cool video coming up to Gamescom where he'll be able to see himself and play himself at PES.”
For now, then, we’ll have to be satisfied knowing PES is pushing its own boundaries and listening to the fans. There’s more yet to this story, however, and we’re excited to see how the final game turns out.
