Is the Premier League License Vital?

[OnlyProEvo]

http://www.onlyproevolutions.com/2011/11/is-premier-league-license-vital.html​

The English Premier League has never been licensed in a PES title.

Down the years, Konami have been limited to licensing just two clubs from the English top flight each year.

Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United, Newcastle and Tottenham have all been licensed in the Pro Evolution Soccer series so far.

Generally, unlike South America, Asia and the majority of Europe, the UK market is FIFA-owned territory.

Is this because different people from different regions and cultures prefer different things, or is it more to do with the fact that the Premier League has never been licensed in the PES series?

Would the UK market still be dominated by FIFA, if somehow, Konami were able to take full control and gain the full Premier League license from EA - or would FIFA fans stay loyal and continue to support EA, playing a FIFA title with an unlicensed Premier League?

........

You can read the rest here.

I'd love to hear your thoughts. :happy:

 

[abu97]

To be honest, whenever I say to a FIFA fan, Pes is a good game and to play it online with me, they say 'Yeah, I'll play pes because I want to play with north london or london f.c with fake player names' That's their only comeback so it can have a slight impact on sales. Also you don't need every epl team license - pes started with 2 teams from epl and they can build on this until they have half the epl licensed.
However I doubt my friends will make the switch as one said 'Even if they had better gameplay and graphics', I'd still play FIFA because of his friends and the online menus' For a lot of people, especially die-hard fans, switching to another game requires courage so things like licenses won't give the best impact.
It's other things like licenses and arena mode and animations the main reason players get that game.
Look at Pes 4 and they didn't have a lot of teams licensed. They had an unlicensed Bundesliga and epl and they still outsold FIFA. It's other factors too they need to improve on and since KONAMI have improved the gameplay this year a lot, I hope for PES 2013 they'll fix bugs and do somep polishing and commentating and animations and look outside the box, not in the box like this years

 

[orlandoSPUR]

I reckon it's a high % of FIFA players play it because of the licenced English leagues forget just the PL they can take a 3rd div team to the PL if they want. And then a lot of other country's have two leagues iirc some people just don't want to mess around with OF

 

[Pokervriend]

I agree with Abu. It may make a slight difference in sales, but the early PES games did not have all the licences as well, and still outsold Fifa. I think it has to do with the people. Just a small fraction of the players dares to change from Fifa to PES or from PES to fifa. You are used to a game, and if you like it, why buy the rivals game? Most Fifa players just wait for november and buy a new version, without even considering what PES has to offer.

 

[Lörd TH]

PES lost sales to Fifa due to Seabass and Co becoming lazy and releasing crappy games.

Prehaps the Premier League license could increase sales but FIFA always snap it up before Konami can even utter a word.

 

[DIECI]

forget the licenses, improve the gameplay, OF are better than any licensing since you could customize basically anything.

 

[hawkeye76]

PES has to be significantly better than FIFA to have as many or more sales.
During the PES4 days FIFA wasn't even the second best football game around. It was a terrible game. But still had decent sales. Nearly all of those sales must have been due to licensing. If licensing didn't get increased sales numbers EA wouldn't bother paying out huge money to secure them.

FIFA has a lot going for it thats not related to the gameplay, not just licensing.
I prefer the offline gameplay of PES, but I can see the reasons behind the high sales for FIFA. I can't understand why FIFA keeps getting highly rated however. Reviewers shouldn't be that easily impressed.

 

[IronCity]

i have written on these boards before, once EA gets FIFA down right the show is over. I can't belive they haven't develped the ultimate gameplay since their other sports titles are top notch. NHL is incredible. In addition EA knows how to market - their US commercials for FIFA are dominating, and inviting. I don't know how many times marketing has made me feel like jumping ship until I come back to this website and come to my senses.

To me, the licensing isn't about the PL, as an OF will do, but rather Championship, or Serie B, MLS that are alll included in FIFA. No switching out OFs when you want to play a Copa Italia tourney or play a friendly between Man U and the Seattle Sounders. I am so sick of switching Option files already.

Playing Mexico national team online with fake names is downright annoying (and insulting).

 

[hoffspur]

Vital? Not necessarily.

Like others have mentioned, if they get the gameplay right, the OFs can more than handle the lack of licenses.

 

[abu97]

Also, Pes need better advertising if they want to increase their merchandise sales. I am always seeing FIFA adverts and have only seen the pes 2012 advert once on espn and that was for like 10 seconds

 

[NYRBPSVUSA]

Just giving my 2 cents

As an American, PES usually turns me off due to the fact that the US National Team still has fake player names. Konami doesn't have to get the kits or crest right, but at least get the names and some of the faces right and I will be happy. I love FIFA because it not only has a fully licenced USNT, but because it also has MLS, where I can embarass opponents with my favorite team New York Red Bulls.

That being said, I do dabble in PES. I have PES 2008 and 2009, but I didn't want 2010. I was extremely close to getting PES 2011 as a Christmas present last year, but they didn't have it in a store near me. :realmad:

This Christmas, I plan on getting FIFA 12 for the Career Mode (I call it Manager Mode) and PES 2012 for the Become a Legend. I have heard that BAL has improved a lot since 2009, with Agents, Desired Clubs, qualifying for European competition, becoming Club Captain, etc. I am very highly interested, so much to the point that I have made my own BAL thread: http://www.pesgaming.com/showthread.php?t=87993

The point is, PES doesn't really need licencing to make me happy. I can just correct the team and player names myself without the need of an OF. Besides, PES has one thing that FIFA does not: a single player mode where you can live out your dream of becoming a professional footballer.

Seabass, if you or any of your PES developers are reading this, I just want you to know that the reason I didn't pick up your game last year is NOT because I didn't want it. It was because they never had it at a GameStop in New Jersey. This year, PES looks really fantastic and I am planning for a Christmas swoop. But if they don't have PES 2012 in a store near where I live, then just remember that it wasn't my fault that I didn't buy it.

Sincerely,
A Neutral Fan

 

[myfanshionmy]

If you don't change it to semi assisted as mentioned above, you have to press L1 every time you pass the ball in order to control the player who receives the pass.

 

[StringerBell]

No but the inclusion of the Bundesliga is. You can no longer deny it I mean it overtook Serie A. Adding it would greatly increase sales of Pro Evo in Central Europe for sure.

 

[kas786]

No but the inclusion of the Bundesliga is. You can no longer deny it I mean it overtook Serie A. Adding it would greatly increase sales of Pro Evo in Central Europe for sure.

I think for established PES fans in general a fully licensed EPL is not of high importance. As you stated the Bundensliga is a far more pressing concern. To have it licensed in the same way as EPL is (only two sides fully licensed whilst other teams present but not licensed) is acceptable.

For those in the mainstream, those who are swayed by masses of licenses held by the FIFA series, to win them over KONAMI would have to exert themselves on obtaining rights. People like to have the choice even if they won't make use of it. So in terms of sales KONAMI should try to license as much as they can.

I personally would prefer to see more Bundensliga teams even if the league won't be fully licensed. The league is fantastic and it's a crime that the Portuguese league was prioritised over it!

 

[abu97]

The argentinian and brazilian league is a start though for KONAMI

 

[OCKRASS]

As an American, PES usually turns me off due to the fact that the US National Team still has fake player names. Konami doesn't have to get the kits or crest right, but at least get the names and some of the faces right and I will be happy. I love FIFA because it not only has a fully licenced USNT, but because it also has MLS, where I can embarass opponents with my favorite team New York Red Bulls.

That being said, I do dabble in PES. I have PES 2008 and 2009, but I didn't want 2010. I was extremely close to getting PES 2011 as a Christmas present last year, but they didn't have it in a store near me. :realmad:

This Christmas, I plan on getting FIFA 12 for the Career Mode (I call it Manager Mode) and PES 2012 for the Become a Legend. I have heard that BAL has improved a lot since 2009, with Agents, Desired Clubs, qualifying for European competition, becoming Club Captain, etc. I am very highly interested, so much to the point that I have made my own BAL thread: http://www.pesgaming.com/showthread.php?t=87993

The point is, PES doesn't really need licencing to make me happy. I can just correct the team and player names myself without the need of an OF. Besides, PES has one thing that FIFA does not: a single player mode where you can live out your dream of becoming a professional footballer.

Seabass, if you or any of your PES developers are reading this, I just want you to know that the reason I didn't pick up your game last year is NOT because I didn't want it. It was because they never had it at a GameStop in New Jersey. This year, PES looks really fantastic and I am planning for a Christmas swoop. But if they don't have PES 2012 in a store near where I live, then just remember that it wasn't my fault that I didn't buy it.

Sincerely,
A Neutral Fan

Waddup my fellow New Yorker,

I am in the Bronx and its really nice to see a fellow American on this site.

You can always pickup a copy of PES at GameStop.

Happy Thanksgiving ! :blush:

 

[hawkeye76]

It might be unrealistic for PES to get the licenses.

They would go a long way to appeasing fans if they vastly increased the size of the editing function. Adding more league structures and teams. Adding the German league. Trying to capture the American market with their league.

They could also look into ways of utilising each individuals OF online. So if you have updated all your team kits and names, you get to see that online, and your opponent sees whatever they have in their OF.

Ok, so you won't be able to play Bournemouth vs Bari online, but you could offline with an updated OF.

 

[markcross]

it would be nice to have the correct team names and stuff however i think the game playability is were they should and do spend the money, so if it come down to a sacrifice of having a lesser playable game just so they could afford the correct names i wouldsay no, it doesnt really bother me the way it is now tbh

 

[IronCity]

my guess is that teams like Man U saw the light and said no to EA exclusive licensing. I don't get why the other teams haven't followed suit and added to their income.

Although, I don't know the monetary politics. Perhaps Konami put all their eggs in one basket to land a team like Man U, Barca etc, and they couldn't afford to buy the rest even if teams were willing.

But I think we all know that EA negotiates exclusive licenses with clubs so they are barred from selling rights to Konami.

 

[Red T-Trexx]

Helpful but not Vital. PES struggles nowadays cos of a lack of depth. No Bundesliga but a host of other European Teams who aren't even put in a league? Waste of an exclusive license to get an official Celtic or Dynamo Kiev squad and not have a league for them. Didn't matter as much on PS2 but now it makes ML feel secluded. Add to that only having 1 D2 League and it just doesn't feel right