Konami's eFootball Is Having a Very Bad Launch

eFootball 2022, Konami's free-to-play replacement for its famed Pro Evolution Soccer series is currently having a pretty dreadful launch. Fans across social media are highlighting a number of issues that they have with the game, from glitches to poor characters models.Searching through the eFootball community Reddit page, it doesn't take long to find posts detailing fans' concerns. From seemingly questionable refereeing decisions, to clips of goalkeepers performing greater blunders than Loris Karius in a Champion's League final, issues concerning the game's AI are brought up a number of times by those who've played the game.While these are issues that could likely be addressed in a patch at a later date, they aren't the only reasons that people feel let down by eFootball's release. A number of posts across Twitter have criticized the game's character models, with fans comparing its animated crowds to zombies and eerie models of on-the-pitch players to those who catfish on dating sites.

eFootball 2022 Zombie Edition. pic.twitter.com/La4uXOn0e0

— ASATOR (@asatorfury) September 30, 2021

⬅️ Tinder Profil Photo
➡️ First Date pic.twitter.com/gDM7tm1xts

— Monster Flair (@MonsterFlair) September 30, 2021

Despite the fact that some members of the eFootball community might be hoping that unnerving images of the game's character models disappear, others have been experiencing the issue of invisibility first-hand during matches. In addition to visual bugs that look to show footballers' arms bending in extraordinary ways, some fans appear to have encountered players quite literally disappearing from the pitch mid-gameplay as well as during corner kicks.

eFootball, formerly known as PES, has officially released today as a free-to-play game.

This is how it’s going...🙃

(via @Nakerman)pic.twitter.com/TzoB40qCae

— B/R Football (@brfootball) September 30, 2021

Ghost corner kick #eFootball2022 #eFootballPES2022 #eFootball @Konami @we_konami First bug pic.twitter.com/5PODylIjAK

— Enes (@enesovikacinski) September 30, 2021

Fired up that eFootball. I know we sometimes talk about players going invisible in big matches but this is taking the piss a bit. pic.twitter.com/BtxKLbFJ6U

— 𝖆𝖓𝖉𝖎 𝖍𝖆𝖒𝖎𝖑𝖙𝖔𝖓 (@andihero) September 30, 2021

All-in-all it's safe to say that large portions of the eFootball community haven't been too pleased with what they've seen from the game so far. According to Steam 250, a website that ranks and assigns games by score based upon a combination of its Steam reviews and how many players have reviewed it, eFootball currently holds the top spot for the worst-rated game in the history of Steam, taking the mantle away from 2011's Flatout 3.

In a video released on Twitter, content creator @TheVerminator summed up some of the thoughts shared by those feeling let down by eFootball's release. "We all want to love this game," the streamer says. "We're not here because we hate the game. We're here because we love the game and this isn't the game that we love. This isn't the game that we grew up playing — it's just not the game anymore. It's gone. PES is dead. eFootball is dead. Konami has killed it."

Final words. I'm out. #eFootball

𝘗𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘦: 𝘐'𝘮 𝘸𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 sun𝘨𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘯 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘱𝘢𝘭𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘨𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘣𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘮𝘺 𝘳𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘴. pic.twitter.com/eTzt5gh7mS

— The Vernimator (@TheVernimator) September 30, 2021

Prior to release, Konami had said that the game would essentially launch as a demo at this point, with a number of additional mechanics, game modes and player types to be added in during a future update. While it seems like it would take a lot to win back some members of its community at this point, the studio will be hoping to do so with the release of additional content over the coming months.

Jared Moore is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.