Looks like there's a free-to-play version of PES 2016 on the way

It's become a sad tradition for me. I play each year's FIFA and PES demos for many hours each, agonising over their merits and differences before making a decision, buying my preferred game, playing it once, and forgetting about it. If I'm really unlucky, I'll end up feeling pangs of regret when I look at the box again months later, just after I've busted a pair of jeans (probably in the process of rescuing an animal of some kind and being so tautly muscular) that I cannot afford to replace.

If the Australian Classification Board is anything to go by, I may now have a mid-point between "tediously limited" and "costs lots of my money". As spotted by MCV, there appears to be a free-to-play version of Konami's football franchise on its way. Details are scant - there aren't any platforms listed, never mind the actual structure of such a game - but the idea of a package that offers chunks of PES' brilliant take on the beautiful game for free is certainly enticing.

PES has again languished behind FIFA this year, so this sounds like a neat, sideways-looking gambit to claw back some players who might be cleverer than me and don't spend all their money on a whim. Then again, Konami's recent record on microtransactions is less than great, so let's not get our hopes too high before we see what's on offer.

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Joe Skrebels
Joe first fell in love with games when a copy of The Lion King on SNES became his stepfather in 1994. When the cartridge left his mother in 2001, he turned to his priest - a limited edition crystal Xbox - for guidance. And now he's here.