The long-running FIFA competitor, the Pro Evolution Soccer football series, is getting a new game. But with the 2020 iteration comes a pretty big change. The game will now be known as eFootball PES 2020.
PES League and eFootball Pro contests will also play a more prominent role in the fanbase for the sports title. Konami is pushing eSports heavily with their efforts for PES, partially influencing the decision for the name alteration. “We simply thought that by including it in the product naming, we’re making a statement and showing our community of fans, but also the wider audience, that esports will play a very big part moving forward,” Konami explained.
Speaking to Gamespot, uropean brand manager, Lennart Bobzien, said that “Talking about Pro Evolution Soccer–in Europe, it was always a tricky one, and when we discussed this repositioning we thought, let’s call it football, it’s a European market [so] we want to have football.’ He continued ‘We still keep PES in the product name since we feel that’s still part of the heritage and we want to keep it in there. Therefore, the combination will be eFootball: PES.”
So in short, an increased focus on eSports offered a little less brandy identity and synergy with the original PES name, so Konami felt the change was justified.
Along with said name change, Konami has also inked a deal with certain football brands to boost the presence and clout the PES franchise can leverage. One such deal is a new agreement with Manchester United, which will replace Liverpool as a mainline team. Liverpool had a deal to place realistic renders of the team’s most iconic grounds in-game, now Manchester has a similar setup. eFootball PES 2020 include a faithful rendition of the club’s most famous ground Old Trafford. The developer will also remove Liverpool from the allowed rotations for PES 2019 eSports, and it will continue into future leagues.
To promote the deal with ManU, Konami released a new trailer, check it out down below.
eFootball PES 2020 is due to launch later this year. The game drops for Xbox One, Playstation 4 and PC on September 10th.
