In a war that has been ongoing for around two decades now, Konami and EA Sports will once again go into battle this month.
EA Sports are the makers of the multi-million selling FIFA football franchise, available on all the major gaming consoles. Its competitors, Konami, hail from Japan and have been creating the Pro Evolution Soccer (PES) series since the late ‘90s.
In the football gaming world, you are generally considered to be in one of either camp – FIFA or PES.
FIFA has boasted the real kits, licensed teams, players and competitions for the lion’s share of the existence of both yearly-released games. If it was the most visually realistic experience you wanted – in terms of stadiums, players and official team kits – then FIFA was the game for you.
On the other hand, PES was considered to be the game for football purists, the fans who wanted to ‘feel the game’. This was thanks to the seemingly more realistic ball physics and player movement on offer from Konami.
PES fans had to make do with names like Merseyside Red and Man Red (Liverpool and Manchester United). Famous players on PES took to the pitch with names like Hanry (Thierry Henry) and Larcos (Roberto Carlos). However, there have been some notable changes and improvements to Konami’s offering in recent times.
A few years ago, PES went big for the exclusive rights to be the home for the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Europa League. However, EA Sports fought back last year and made FIFA 19 the home of UEFA’s flagship tournaments.
For this year’s upcoming release – PES has rebranded with the new game to be officially known as eFootball PES 2020. With this change came the news of the officially licensed partners in the new release. Those teams include Juventus, AC Milan, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Manchester United, Arsenal, Celtic, Rangers and more.
This means that FIFA 20 will not have any of the aforementioned teams. They will have to go down the PES route of fake names and a very basic kit in the general colours of each club.
eFootball PES 2020 has some fully licensed leagues sewn up as well, including Italy’s Serie A, France’s Ligue 1 and 2, and others.
Last week, Konami also announced the huge coup of being the official home of the UEFA 2020 European Championships. The national tournament add-on will be available as a download to eFootball PES 2020 owners before next summer’s tournament.
This means that eFootball PES 2020 will be the only place to play the officially licensed version of the upcoming UEFA European Championships, continuing on from their hosting of the 2016 tournament.
EA Sports have not had the official licence for UEFA’s premier international tournament since the 2012 finals.
EA – as the virtual home of football’s ultimate governing body, FIFA – has always had exclusive rights to the largest international tournament of them all – the World Cup.
Among the rest of EA Sports’ portfolio are the official licences for the following league and tournaments – UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, English Premier League, LaLiga, Bundesliga, MLS and more.
Konami’s European brand manager for the PES series, Lennart Bonzein, told RealSport101 that he believes eFootball PES 2020 is ahead of EA Sports’ FIFA 20.
“Obviously they have so new modes but I am following them and watching them and I would say this year, in terms of announcements and stuff, we are ahead. I’m not saying that because I am biased, it’s just a fact.
“If you look at the July for us, it was very crucial for us in terms of our partner club announcements and it was something people did not expect.”
