Konami on PES 2018 coming to Switch: “of course we considered it”

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Upcoming footy sim PES 2018 scored one of GamesRadar+'s Best Of E3 2017 awards, but longstanding fans of Konami’s cult classic pointed out that there was no mention of a Switch version at the show. The assumption, then, is that it's not something you’ll see on Nintendo’s new machine – but brand manager Adam Bhatti tells GamesRadar+ that the topic remains under discussion.

“Of course we’ve considered it,” says the man credited with spearheading PES’ resurgence over the last two years. “Right now we’re not ruling it out, but for PES 2018 the formats we’ve announced are the ones [in active development].”

“Switch has blown a lot of people away,” he continues. “It’s something that we’re looking at. Konami has a great relationship with Nintendo – we released Bomberman R, which did fantastically. Who knows?”

The Japanese publisher is similarly open-minded with regards to an Xbox One X version of PES, with Bhatti revealing that his team discovered the new machine’s specifications not long before its official reveal at Microsoft's E3 press conference.

“We learned about Xbox One X at around the same time you learned about it!” he says. “Things happened late. But we’ve had good conversations with Microsoft and are hopeful that it does the work for us. Once we start working with the kit we’ll assign a small amount of resource to it, and hopefully be able to do a great job.”

I was talking to Bhatti during a hands-on with PES 2018 on PS4, Xbox One and PC. For my impressions of the new game, head here. It's out on September 12.

Ben Wilson
Ben Wilson

I'm GamesRadar's sports editor, and obsessed with NFL, WWE, MLB, AEW, and occasionally things that don't have a three-letter acronym – such as Chvrches, Bill Bryson, and Streets Of Rage 4. (All the Streets Of Rage games, actually.) Even after three decades I still have a soft spot for Euro Boss on the Amstrad CPC 464+.