Kimura insists that it's possible: 'We would ask our fans to not worry, we have made great efforts to tailor the visual quality of the game to the hardware of each device.' Of course, even if that's true of gameplay, there's still the thorny issue of trying to make a game that can match other PS5 or Xbox Series X games for looks, while simultaneously being able to run on normal mobile devices.

In other words, we are not making the game for mobile, but working to make mobile more console-like.' We then take that exact same experience and make it available for mobile devices. Of course, that mobile inspiration will worry fans of the more fully-fledged console PES experience – is this going to be a more casual football experience than the normal simulation approach? Kimura says not to worry: 'We're still making games on consoles first. By applying the same model across all platforms, we hope that more football fans will be able to play this game on consoles as well.'

'I believe that we have already proven that this structure can be successful on mobile. 'We started planning this move roughly two years ago to coincide with the console generation transition and changes in the market environment,' he tells us, before explaining that PES Mobile's huge success acted as a blueprint for the wider shift. One of the key figures behind that shift is series producer Seitaro Kimura, who spoke to IGN ahead of the announcement, and explained more of the thinking around it. It's easy to see why Konami thought it needed a new name to go with it – even if the clunky ' eFootball' will be a hard title to swallow for many long-time fans. While recent years have seen the likes of Call of Duty embrace free-to-play and live service approaches for specific modes, this marks one of the industry's longest-running franchises adopting an entirely different release model.

It might even be one among the biggest shifts for an established game series, full stop. Last year, it was big news simply that the series was taking a year off to switch to Unreal Engine today, we know it's also getting a new name, going digital-only, becoming free-to-play, and will be playable across new-gen and last-gen consoles, PC, and mobile. It's not an overstatement to say that PES' shift into eFootball is the biggest moment in Konami's footballing history since, well, beginning to make football games.

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