Despite years of remaining fairly silent, Konami has been gradually shuffling back into the spotlight as of late, unveiling some new merchandise for Silent Hill last week and unexpectedly announcing a murder mystery multiplayer game titled CrimeSight earlier today. Alongside the reveal, the notorious Japanese publisher also stealth dropped an open beta for a "new Football game," which is presumably slated to become the latest entry in Konami's long-running soccer series, PES 2022.

The early look at the next addition to the PES franchise is available on a PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, or Xbox Series X, and can be found by searching for "New Football Game Online Performance Test" on either Sony or Microsoft's storefronts. In a statement on its website, Konami clarifies that the test isn't supposed to be evocative of PES 2022's final product, noting that its graphics, gameplay, animations, and balancing are all still in development and will be improved in time for the game's release. The beta itself will run from today until July 8.

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For those wondering why the company has dropped an open beta before it's done finalizing how the game looks and plays, the publisher claims it's to "check the quality of online matchmaking and connection" so the team can work on it ahead of launch. Konami has confirmed that fans don't need PlayStation Plus or Xbox Live Gold to play, while there will be cross-generation multiplayer for both platforms.

As for what's included in the early build of the game, players can select between four teams: Manchester United, Barcelona, Juventus, and Bayern Munich. It's worth noting that any progress made during this trial segment won't carry over into the full game. It's undeniably an odd way to show off PES 2022, especially as Konami doesn't mention the franchise's name anywhere while talking about the beta.

Although PES is traditionally an annual franchise, PES 2021 broke tradition last year by not releasing a full game. Instead, it labeled its yearly offering a "Season Update" and sold it at a reduced price, essentially offering a very similar game to PES 2020 with an updated lineup of teams and a few small tweaks. The intention behind the decision was to fully commit to bringing PES to next-generation consoles later this year, with the team opting to switch from the Fox Engine to Unreal Engine, so it'll be interesting to see whether the extra development time paid off.

PES 2022's open beta will conclude on July 8.

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Source: Konami