With what seems to be the first (very)tentative details of PES2011 surfacing in Japan earlier this week I think it is a question worth asking. The question being are Konami ripping up there own form book when it comes to releasing information on the franchise?
We are used to getting solid information regards the franchise appearing in April or May with little else but rumour circulating before then, and next to nothing at all from the developers themselves until much later in the pre-release cycle. When I read that none other than Seabass himself had been musing about PES2011 I couldn’t help but have my interest piqued for a few reasons.
More after the jump
I guess the first and most obvious reason would be the timing. This is coming to us before news of the latest DLC update for PeS2010 had even hit. Now I don’t know if you could call it ‘striking while the iron is hot’ but said iron at least seems to be getting primed to strike. By all this talk of iron and striking I mean of course the official announcement and details of this years game. Hopeful maybe on my part but Konami have planted that seed intentional or not.
Then we move on to the source of the information itself. A respected, well established Japanese gaming publication reporting on the views of Seabass himself. This isn’t just some careless whisper from behind the scenes picked up on the wire, but in fact are the musings of the producer himself in a one to one with Famitsu magazine. Doesn’t this all come across as engineered with intent? Not to say that this would be a bad thing – quite the opposite in fact – as it suggests not only a change of tact from Konami but perhaps more importantly signals an element of confidence on there part.
We then have the details themselves. Animation re: Player Motions, is referred to along with a confession of sorts that they had not perhaps adapted to the demands of next-gen hardware. The cynic in me could say I have heard all this before but for some reason it just comes across differently. As if the are confident they have cracked the next-gen code. I also like the referrences to the European fanbase not being particularly happy with certain elements such as game speed. Remember, this is Seabass talking to a Japanese publication and as such you would think he would not feel obligated to addres the European fanbase. It makes me think he wanted his words to be far more reaching than his domestic audience. If this was the intention then I would suggest it is mission accomplished and I hope more comment from the developers and hard news regards the game hits sooner rather than later.
As always time will tell. I get the feeling though that with this little snippet of information hitting this early the wait for further details might not be so long and arduous. But who am I kidding, the game could hit next week and it would still be one hell of a wait!
