Shingo 'Seabass' Takatsuka has stated that he wanted to delay Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 and admitted that the game fell far short of what the PES development team were aiming for. Takatsuka also spoke of a complete overhaul for the series in the coming years.

PES 2008 has been strongly criticised in the gaming press for framerate issues and faulty online play, particularly on the PlayStation 3. Takatsuka also commented that one possible reason for the problems with this year's game was that the development team simply isn't geared up for multi-format releases.

Takatsuka's comments were made to publication PSM3: "PES 2008 is so far from what we wanted. In fact, we thought about delaying it but different factors meant we had to release it. As a developer, we've worked the same way since the days of the SNES. We're simply not set up for multi-platform development."

The Seabass went on to comment that "PES 2009 is in development, but after hearing the criticism, we'll be taking it back to the drawing board. It might not be next year, but it will be soon."

Despite these issues with PES 2008, it still managed to score highly in our Xbox 360 review and continues to perform well in UK sales charts.