Pro Evolution Soccer has done it.

In case you missed the news, PES is the first major sports game to try a free to play model, which released today.

This model includes seven teams you can play free of charge, including Bayern Munich, Juventus, AS Roma, Brazil and France. It also includes a full training section, and perhaps most importantly, the full experience of the MyClub feature.

That last bit is the most important because Konami is betting they will make more money from users spending cash within MyClub rather than simply ponying up for a $60 game. The thought process here is that maybe not every user puts $60 into MyClub, but enough people put $10 or $20 into it, and some people put well beyond $60 into it, so Konami makes out in the end.

And it's possible that if this works, EA and 2K won’t be far behind in doing something similar.

It's very unlikely you’ll see MyClub or Ultimate Team be taken completely out of games, but it’s also becoming increasingly likely the barrier to play these modes could soon be simply signing up for an online account and playing.

To me, this could also signal something even more interesting: the true birth of the subscription model for sports games.

The theory that subscription models could one day replace our traditional yearly releases is not a new one, but thanks to advancements in data delivery and shifts in the gaming landscape, it's something that increasingly seems likely to happen with a major AAA title soon. Imagine if these smaller versions of games were added as part of EA Access, or you were allowed to purchase just portions of a game? Suddenly you would have access to new games (and the library of old ones) from the get go for something like $20-$25 a month -- at least in the case of a subscription model like EA Access.

That could end up as a really superb deal.

Does this system make more sense for consumers? I’m not sure. The EA Access program would to some degree if it were to go that way -- simply because there are more sports games under the EA umbrella -- but the subscription model may or may not depending on what form it took. After all, if we're to assume that sales of AAA titles have been dwindling but offset by micro transactions thus far on the financial side of things, at what point does the current system begin to crumble?

Really, the question boils down to figuring out if and when there is a breaking point for yearly releases. When do sports games quit improving enough year over year, and thus, when does it make to make more sense to look for an alternative route?

It seems, at least, we’re one step closer to figuring that out.