Konami, makers of FIFA competitor Pro Evolution Soccer, announced today that they had secured licensing to 21 Brazilian club teams for the series’ 2015 installment. This means that they will be able to use team names, colors, crests, stadiums, et cetera. They have confirmed the licensing for names from four teams, and are working on confirming the license of names from remaining teams.
This is a win for Konami as EA announced this summer that they were unable to secure the rights to Brazilian teams and player names. I know that I much prefer playing sports games when I can be controlling my favorite teams and players, so this may be enough to sway fans of the Brazilian league to Konami’s side.
PES has struggled in recent years to compare to EA’s FIFA, but the developers are confident that they have made the changes necessary to get more players to their game.
Pro Evolution Soccer 2015 sees a true return to core PES values of total control, super responsive controls and renowned gameplay, where the user has unrestricted control over how they play. Konami has completely reworked a raft of key elements to ensure every pass, shot or off-the-ball run is finely balanced to give maximum player satisfaction within PES 2015’s on-field action.
Konami is promising a number of cool features for this years PES, including PES ID, which imbues teams and players with the tendencies and emotions the show in real life, and the FOX engine, which provides for seamless movement between animations, keeping the game look realistic. They also promise realistic crowd reactions to events, as well as the general ebb and flow of the match.
I can’t draw conclusions between the two games yet because PES does not release until until November 11th, but I have had the chance to play the latest FIFA and it has certainly continued the series trend of quality, but with the move to the latest generation of consoles and an attempt to return to PES core values, I’m excited to get a chance to try the final product.