Konami has today announced a three year extension to their current deal that allows them exclusively feature the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League in PES.
That should stop those EA has the Champions League rumours then! Full statement from Konami can be seen below.
KONAMI and UEFA has enjoyed a close relationship since the original agreement was signed in 2009 and the new partnership will allow KONAMI to use all iconography and presentation elements associated with the competitions exclusively within the PES series. The UEFA Champions League is Europe’s greatest club football competition and will be fully featured in all versions of the game for the next three years. All versions of the game will also feature official logos for the competitions across its packaging.
The agreement allows KONAMI to feature both the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League club competitions within its many options, with both featured as individual modes or within the larger season overview upon qualification – with the UEFA Super Cup featured within the iconic Master League mode. The PES series is widely regarded as the most realistic football simulation available, with its most recent PES 2015 iteration winning awards such as IGN’s ‘Sports Game of the Year 2014’ and ‘Best Sports Game 2014’ at Europe’s prestige gamescom exhibition.
As you’d expect, Konami are quite happy about the agreement. Here’s a quote from Sean Ratcliffe, European Brand Director at Konami, expressing his delight:
“The UEFA Champions League is the biggest prize in club football and we are delighted to have extended our exclusive agreement with UEFA to feature it in the PES series. In the past six years we have worked closely with UEFA creating the PES Virtual UEFA Champions League as a global online version of the real thing, and this year’s UEFA Champions League final in Berlin played host to the climax of the 2015 PES season as the 25 best players from all over the globe gathered to determine the winner. The grand finals were held within the dedicated PlayStation site in the UEFA Champions Festival event taking place at the legendary Brandenburg Gate, with the two finalist also taking part in an exclusive special exhibition match which was played pitch side in the lead up to the final itself in the iconic Olympiastadion. These are exciting times for the PES series.”
Sean’s happy, as is Guy Laurent-Epstein. You know, the Marketing Director at UEFA. Here’s what he had to say:
“We are very pleased to continue and extend our working partnership with KONAMI. This new cycle provides an opportunity to build an even closer working relationship, allowing us to activate in new and exciting ways over the next 3 years. We are delighted that future iterations of the series will continue to feature the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Europa League as we also look forward to extending other areas of co-operation.”
In all seriousness, it’s great news for Konami and PES. The biggest club competition in the world will remain with them, in their game, for another three years at least. Huzzah!
Not only that it’s great to have the license for 3 more years it is also a good sign for the future of PES. After the dispute between KONAMI and Kojima and the cancel of Silent Hills there where rumours that KONAMI could also stop working on future PES games… Read more »
Indeed it’s good news.
Lets hope it’s finally the full license and not some dodgy one where teams are missing!
I’m 100% sure that it will be the same licence as always. It’s just a contract with the UEFA. I don’t know if it even includes a single team. Some teams will be missing as EA has the exclusive rights for them (for example Borussia Dortmund).
If KONAMI were smart, they would have made this deal to where EA couldn’t have anything that resembled the Champions or Europa League in their game period. The only way you can play either tournament whether as a single game mode or during your career would be in PES.
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This great news again showing Konami is a lover of football not just the premier league. I personally don’t mind about league licenses, edit mode is good enough (which it wasn’t on Ps4, but PS3 was great). It’s excellent having all the continental club competitions on the game. PS I… Read more »
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