Konami pushes esports agenda with free PES 2017 Trial Edition

30 November 2016

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Konami is getting behind esports with the launch of the free to play PES 2017 Trial Edition released on November 24th. pes2017-trialedition

The developer has released this version which will have a considerable focus on the PES League’s esports division.

It will allow players to compete online against others from across the world.

It is a clear bid to compete against FIFA 17, with EA stepping things up in regards to its competitive gaming scene with this new edition. The FIWC 2017 for instance will have a hugely bolstered prize pool, and there are numerous tournaments popping up as more and more traditional football clubs sign up their own FIFA pros.

At a grassroots level however FIFA 17 still costs money, and the only free version is the demo. Konami offering this Trial Edition for a total charge of zero will doubtless lead to a number of downloads, and an opportunity to make up some ground on the battle for the masses that it has been losing in the past few years to EA.

Players will have access to nine fully licensed teams, and there is still some time to practice before the PES League 2017 gets underway in December.

Whilst esports newcomer Overwatch costs money, as does big hitter CSGO, two of the main three titles are free to play in the form of League of Legends and Dota 2.

Konami is looking to tap into this, and it’ll be interesting to see how many get involved in the PES League and also how EA respond. 

Esports Insider says: Fair play to Konami. Having tried out the PES demo a while back the new title is great fun to play and we’ll definitely be getting involved in the PES League. If it can go toe to toe with FIFA in an esports sphere then that is great news for the title’s future, and maybe just maybe the glory days of the early noughties can be rekindled…