Konami scores UEFA assets for Pro Evolution Soccer franchise

by Griffin McElroy { Sep 14th 2008 at 7:00PM }

Electronic Arts has had the NFL completely monopolized since 2005, giving them exclusive rights to official league teams and players for their Madden franchise -- but did you also know that they've also traditionally had assets for most professional European soccer leagues tied up as well? (You did? Well aren't you awesome.) However, Konami recently released some details concerning the next installment in their Pro Evolution Soccer franchise -- chief among these being their new licensing deals with the UEFA, as well as the Manchester United and Liverpool football clubs.

Assets from the UEFA as well as the two clubs will be included in Pro Evolution Soccer 2009. It's quite a coup for Konami, whose sales figures for PES titles have traditionally paled in comparison to those of EA's FIFA series. We anticipate EA's retaliation -- we hear they're in talks with various athletic leagues to purchase the exclusive rights for sports.

Tags: football, konami, liverpool, manchester-united, pes-2009, pro-evolution-soccer, soccer, uefa

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Chris @ Sep 14th 2008 7:05PM

Ahhh, Wes Brown's fully licensed shin :-)

Waqman @ Sep 14th 2008 7:14PM

Eh, I had alot of fun with the FIFA 09 demo. And if Pro Evo 2009 is anything like 08 then well, who cares? FIFA for me.

Albanian_Killa @ Sep 15th 2008 12:21AM

Exactly. FIFA is just evolving so much. The features it has, is thanks to the licensing. I mean, there is no doubt in my mind I'm picking FIFA over PES this year. It just amazed me. Great, great football game. EA did their homework on this one.

Albanian_Killa @ Sep 15th 2008 12:22AM

HAHA I can't believe I said "FIFA is evolving so much" in my first post! I didn't even think about using the word evolve against Pro Evolution Soccer haha

mike_p @ Sep 15th 2008 11:19AM

Sign me up for FIFA 09 as well...

Demo is sooo good. Loving the new flow of first touches and passing play.

Ringo @ Sep 15th 2008 3:13PM

Well to me at least, each year fifa seems to be getting a little bit more like pro evo, and then konami goes and does something radical like a decent wii game.

I shudder for the day that konami take a step back and lets fifa take the lead, in my opinion anyway. Mainly cause i don't like the character animation and the slightly different playing style that fifa has had for the last 10years. Fifa95 was good tho.

ANTCEP @ Sep 14th 2008 7:25PM

i knew that ea had the rights tied up

Poisoned Al @ Sep 14th 2008 7:44PM

Well yes, I did know:

NEWS FLASH: Nobody outside of the US gives a flying fuck about American Football.

Maverick Saturn @ Sep 14th 2008 7:48PM

That's not true! Americans outside UK like it too! >:(

Al2x @ Sep 14th 2008 7:48PM

Uhmm, then why is there a Canadian football league? And why is the NFL playing 1 game in England now each year (complete with a sold out crowd at Wembley)? Sure, American Football's popularity will never be as tremendous as in the US than other countries, but it's expanding into other territories.

Poisoned Al @ Sep 14th 2008 8:07PM

They play in England? Nobody told us.

gir @ Sep 14th 2008 8:18PM

....but it's expanding into other territories.

Hardly! Lets hope it doesn't.

We all know why Americans love American football, don't we now.

quasebrasileiro @ Sep 14th 2008 8:33PM

That's 'cuz everyone outside the US sucks at it.

FSK405K @ Sep 14th 2008 8:48PM

The NFL is also pretty big in Thailand. 30 years of Americans visiting and bringing our habits have made it popular there. There are even Super Bowl parties.

Poisoned Al @ Sep 14th 2008 8:49PM

No, they play rugby, becuase they aren't overpaid, pretty boys with the combined IQ of a ham sandwich.

Xero @ Sep 15th 2008 2:38AM

Sounds to me that you are a little jealous that your country cant cut it in football.

Cal @ Sep 15th 2008 6:19AM

Al, I think you forgot to put 'juiced up' and 'padded up' in there

Poisoned Al @ Sep 15th 2008 6:24AM

Nah, I hate football in both forms. Mes a petrol head.

Maverick Saturn @ Sep 15th 2008 9:11AM

I don't think UK is worried whether they can cut it or not because they don't see the purpose of it fullstop. Much like how the ideology of Nascar going round in circles means nothing to us.

These two sports are always deemed manly compared to Football aka Soccer (another thing that still baffles me) but yet in my opinion pale in comparison to thier direct competitor. Rugby vs NFL, rugby has more countries partaking without the silly cheerleaders and without the knights armour, as for our motor sports, this round in a circle business doesn't cut it with us, Hamilton in an F1 going from 16th to 5/4th or higher on a difficult wet spaghetti track is more exciting to me.

Maverick Saturn @ Sep 14th 2008 7:50PM

There was once a time I was a Fifa addict, then I spotted the greatness that was Pro Evo, and Fifa games weren't changing much so didn't interest me, but just when I began to believe I would now become a dedicated Pro Evo fan, Fifa is attracting me back :O Thier last game was great, and to be honest, I'm looking forward to playing 09 :D As for the new Pro Evo, I'm on the bench waiting to see what happens.

HB96st @ Sep 14th 2008 7:56PM

Konami juggles the ball past EA's defenders..

There's a slight opening... Konami shoots..

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

gir @ Sep 14th 2008 8:19PM

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!

gir @ Sep 14th 2008 10:53PM

Halfback passes to center, back to wing, back to center, center holds it! Holds it! Holds It!

Maverick Saturn @ Sep 15th 2008 9:15AM

I looked like it was all over! Fifa isn't playing dead, they were three nil down and they are coming back! Coming back! Its all level here! Fifa 2008 comes in with an amazing cross, Fifa 2009 is ready, Fifa 2009 pulls of the most incredible bicycle kick I have ever seen and its a GOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLL!

Time is up and Fifa has won this match! What was I saying? It looked like it was all over! It is now!

Eh @ Sep 14th 2008 8:19PM

Now lets hope they actually do something new this time instead of releasing PES4 2009. FIFA has been improving leaps and bounds with each new release, PES has barely improved at all ever sense PES4 came out and destroyed FIFA, making them way too confident. PES 08 was an embarrassment to next gen gaming, they have a long way to go if they expect to beat FIFA 09.

Cutty @ Sep 14th 2008 8:41PM

Pro Evo constantly had FIFA beat in terms of recreating a great game of football until last year when EA's game turned out to be the better of the two. This year I hope Konami haven't gotten lazy again and release a good football game like the older ones.

FSK405K @ Sep 14th 2008 8:49PM

As soon as one of these companies stops focusing on the men--boring--and has the women's FIFA or Olympic tournament, I'll bite.

Do not insert boob jokes here.

Waqman @ Sep 14th 2008 8:55PM

Futbol/Football is waaaaay better than American football. I still don't understand why its called that. When just looking at pure logic it would make more sense to call the game something else.

Ben @ Sep 14th 2008 8:56PM

Woop-de-doo. Two whole licensed clubs from the entire Premiership. Big coup that is! And next year they'll lose them, as they did with the Chelsea and Liverpool licenses they had a few years back.

It's pathetic and it's about time multiple licenses were given out.

HHUK @ Sep 14th 2008 10:06PM

Old/10. *sigh*

Plus, after Konami screwed up with Pro Evo 2008 it seems it's lost half it's fanbase to FIFA.

We need new FIFA news. :P

HB96st @ Sep 14th 2008 11:19PM

Im Sorry,, Pro Evo IS just the better game. Yeah they fall behind with the licensed teams and the graphics do look better on fifa, But GAMEPLAY wise? Konami has it and BEEN had it hands down!

Remember International Superstar Soccer?? I could not put that down for the N64!!

Eh @ Sep 15th 2008 1:49AM

Thats an old argument. Give FIFA 08 a chance, its MUCH better than PES 2008. I cant imagine anyone liking PES 2008 more than FIFA 08 on the ps3/360 if theyve actually played both games, its no contest. FIFA did use to suck really bad but this isnt 2005 anymore, they turned the tables on Konami with FIFA 07 by creating a game with good gameplay and then destroyed them with FIFA 08. Konami lost a hell of a lot of fans after PES6, who knows how many they lost with 2008.

qwer @ Sep 15th 2008 12:16AM

interesting, pro evo always got the better reviews for gameplay while fifa dominated purely cause of the name licences, i wonder how this'll change things

Nigeria @ Sep 15th 2008 5:56AM

All that talk that Fifa has been improving is simply empty hype. Though, after playing last years version, I guess moving from trash to mediocre is a sort of improvement. There still hasn't been a good game in the series since 98.

And as for Pro Evo, they've been going backwards since 4. The 360 version is such a disappointemnt; better to get the made for PS2/Wii version.