Today, when it comes to football, the first thing that comes to mind is FIFA. However, there was another game that once wreaked havoc. Pro Evolution Soccer (PES), which was in fierce competition with FIFA for a while, was played with great interest by millions. Since the 2010s, this series has not been able to show much presence against FIFA. So what happened that once loved game PES lost to its biggest rival FIFA?
PES emerged as the continuation of the International Superstar Soccer (ISS) series adapted from the Goal Storm game published by Japanese Konami studios in the 90s. The game was called Winning Eleven in Japan for a long time. The first game of the series, which has a new game every year, was released for PlayStation in October 2001 under the name ‘Pro Evolution Soccer’. The game had licensing problems. Unlike the real player names used by the FIFA series, PES used fictional names. However, the game still attracted a lot of attention. Eurogamer called Pro Evolution Soccer “the best football game ever” when it hit PlayStation 2 in 2001.
When PES 2 came out, most gamers said that the game was superior to its rival FIFA. Then, in the following years, PES 3, PES 4 and PES 5 appeared, with the famous Italian referee Pierluigi Collina on the cover, respectively. The series was experiencing its golden age during this period. There were still licensing issues. For example, the Manchester United team was called Man Red, and Liverpool was called Merseyside Red. However, football fans loved the PES series for its lifelike gameplay. Konami also gave great importance to realism in the game, knowing that it could not cope with FIFA in terms of licensing. The movements, passes and shots of the players were very close to a real football match. The PES series began to appear on the market with year names as of 2008.
PES confession from FIFA
Gary Paterson, FIFA’s chief designer at the time, said: “PES made a big impression at the beginning. I don’t think there was another sports game back then that created such diverse, evolving and emotional gameplay. I loved him,” she says.
FIFA has further developed the game by correctly adapting what it has learned from PES to its own game. After the release of consoles such as PlayStation 3 and XBOX 360, FIFA gained a sales momentum. From the end of the 2000s, however, the decline began for PES. Konami’s public relations officer from 2001 to 2018 Steve Merrett says that as of this date, PES has focused on the wrong elements. Merret says Konami has worked hard to make the players in the game look like real-life football players, which is like following a dog’s tail.
FIFA has also focused on gameplay, applying what it has learned from PES well. In addition, the licensing problem that PES had been stuck in since the beginning was turning into an advantage for FIFA day by day. FIFA has managed to add new game modes by increasing the number of leagues and championships within its structure every year. Especially the Ultimate Team mode, which helps to create a dream team by collecting football player cards, including legendary former football players in FIFA, and the career mode, which helps to manage your own team, attracted a lot of attention by football lovers.
Ultimate Team factor
“It’s incredibly exciting to find players you would never normally consider,” says Adam Shaikh, creative director of Fifa Ultimate Team. These developments were also reflected in the sales figures. FIFA 17 sold 1.1 million units in its first week of sales in September 2017. In its first week, PES 2017 could only reach 50,000 copies.
Bringing the eFootball addition to PES as of 2019 was not enough to save the game. Moreover, the game made it free in 2021, but it became one of the worst rated games on the PC gaming platform Steam. From poor graphics to poor gameplay, the PES series is frequently cited by game sites as lagging behind FIFA in every way.
Now Konami, by mixing the name of PES into history, is releasing the legendary football game only under the name eFootball. FIFA will also be published as EA FC 24 from 2024. Let’s see if the rivalry between these two games can return to its old days.
Sources: The Guardian, Goal, Sportskeeda, Bleacherreport
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