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Konami to end partnership with UEFA

The #UEFA indicates however:
We look forward to continuing to work with Konami in the field of football for UEFA national teams perhaps suggesting the acquired license of Euro 2020. #PES
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I was just wondering: Wouldn't this be a perfect moment for us to work together as a community and spam @2K and @2K_UK on Twitter asking/begging for them to get involved. Not signing those petitions that have historically gone unnoticed but on Twitter. I'm betting that if we start a movement we can get their attention. Which won't necessarily translate into "2K making a football game". But it could be a good start.
 
What else does PES have to offer? Back in the day gameplay was what sold it. They really need to reinvent themselves. I think a perfect edit mode could be the way to go.
 
Chuny said:
I was just wondering: Wouldn't this be a perfect moment for us to work together as a community and spam @2K and @2K_UK on Twitter asking/begging for them to get involved. Not signing those petitions that have historically gone unnoticed but on Twitter. I'm betting that if we start a movement we can get their attention. Which won't necessarily translate into "2K making a football game". But it could be a good start.
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Start it up! I'd love for 2ksports to make a footy game. What they have done with MLB The Show, NBA2k, NHL, heck even NFL2k4&5, are nothing short of remarkable. That's a company that "gets it".
 
As much as I want a 3rd alternative - and have wanted for years now - I do believe 2K or any other producer would be wise to wait a few years before jumping in. Let PES ride out its decline, then you appear out of the sudden and get treated as a savior of football gaming.
 
I'd love a 3rd footy game, but even if 2k started work TODAY on one, it would take years ...
Maybe Sports Interactive could be tempted to produce a playable version of Football Manager? Although there's probably a very good reason why this hasn't happened already/won't happen.
 
Honestly, after the latest events, I'm almost happy Konami lost Champions League. Not only this license was always underused, but it was also one of the many reasons developers could efford to be lazy (CL being a great marketing wise security blanket).. and the game is probably going towards the empty 2018 direction anyway. I don't feel the need to have a Pes around if it will be mostly directed to the My Club crowd.. better to let the saga die.

Of course, if they'll use this loss to get back on their old school roots, I'd support them very happily. I don't see it happening of course, but still.

Chuny said:
I was just wondering: Wouldn't this be a perfect moment for us to work together as a community and spam @2K and @2K_UK on Twitter asking/begging for them to get involved. Not signing those petitions that have historically gone unnoticed but on Twitter. I'm betting that if we start a movement we can get their attention. Which won't necessarily translate into "2K making a football game". But it could be a good start.
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Man I'd be completely for it. 100%. I'd go as far as fund a serious indie guy on kickstarter to just make a damn good soccer game if it was possible. But having 2K would be a fucking fantasy dream. Just point me in the right direction and I'm with you, no matter how impossible it seems.
 
I honestly think the only way 2k would even consider making a game is if Konami stopped making PES completely.
 
I don't think it's the end of PES but it might be the end of PES as we know it.

I think they'll go for a completely online focused game now and if we are "lucky" it will be possible to buy a Master League mode on the side as a DLC. That might include the WEFA Cup as it was called back in the day of PES 4/5 (I think it was), and they might also make an official UEFA Euro DLC every 4 years (I don't see them making a Euro qualifier which would be brilliant but not with all the licenses they'd have to aquire).

They'll definately loose some brand value without CL but maybe not so much in relation to their target audience, for example "the guy in Botswana playing with Liverpool or Dortmund without the correct leagues". That guy didn't have the leagues before and now he wont have CL either but he doesn't care because all he wants to do is (pick up and) play others online in one off games with the best 10 teams in the world, and/or create his Myclub team based on badges and kits from those same teams and with the worlds entire player database that's largely not licensed (Fifpro) at his disposal. He had that before and he will continue to have it, and Konami can focus even more on recreating every little detail related to those teams, and when teams' popularity shift they can also shop around for new partnership clubs letting the old ones go (all this actually reflects the globalisation trend of football rather nicely and might come in handy for Konami if the top clubs of Europe ever realize their wet economic dreams of a inter-European super league).

That's what I read into the news about the loss of the CL license and as an offline league mode/ML player it doesn't make much difference to me. Sure, it was a nice touch and decently implemented but very poorly maintained as it never evolved or saw any innovation; they never had all the teams of the competition (that alone was always a bit of a joke to me and made the Europa League completely irrelevant with what half the teams in it at best), you had to manually place teams in groups and swap internal places to play games in correct order, they didn't have the final stadium every year (screw that fantasy stadium in 2018 that was mandatory to play in!), you couldn't go straight to 1/8 finals, couldn't play a two legged exibition and they never made it an online mode which would have been obvious to do with recreating the thrill and drama of two legged home and away matches against an online opponent. So other than being a little icing it really makes no difference to me.

The two big questions for me will be how does gameplay develop (will they make it more sim and less assisted) and will it even be possible to play offline Master League?

I have big doubts that the anwsers to both those questions will be positive for me and then I might say that, if so, that will be the end of PES, for me.
 
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Why isn't Adam or anyone official not talking about this. Isn’t this important enough to clear things up for fans. It’s very serious and is a bold move made by Konami.
 
Chris Davies said:
All of that was definitely in preparation for this day, I reckon. The good thing about a ten-year license is that you know with about three years left whether you're realistically going to be able to renew it or not, and if not, you can start doing what you can to live without it.

But out of the box, playing with e.g. a licensed Liverpool in an unlicensed England League is just shiiiiiit, from an aesthetic point of view. Real shirts v T-shirts. There is literally no point to that club license IMO - except for the stadium.

When the whole game is anonymised, though (Manchester Reds and all that), it'd be better if we could just build a generic stadium that looks similar to it - if they then invested the money they'd saved on the license back into programmers, and gameplay.

But it would go straight into the back pocket.

More than anything, I think the club licenses are marketing tools as far as Konami are concerned. Maybe they think a lot of people in Liverpool buy PES because it's the Liverpool FC game. I'm betting they haven't...
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They seem to be pushing so hard to sign clubs here and there, but ultimately, who cares? I'm a United supporter, so I couldn't give two shits that Liverpool is licensed. Even if United were licensed, the rest of the Premier League isn't, so it's a moot point. As you said, it just makes the rest of the Premier League (and other leagues) look even more hokey than they already are. The contrast between a fully licensed team with their respective stadium compared T-Shirt FC is so glaring, it just weakens the immersion for those who don't mod their game.

When it comes down to it, it's a pissing contest Konami cannot win. You think your average football fan is looking at both of these games and going, "Well, PES has Liverpool! That's the one for me!" No, because FIFA has Liverpool, the Premier League, Championship, League 1, League 2 and practically everyone else. It's not even a contest in that regard, so why go against the tide? Like long time fans have suggested for years, make the game more flexible, easier to modify, and give us more ways to customize the experience from aesthetics to gameplay. They'll never do that because they've doubled down on myClub and "efootball." Same old, same old.

Matt10 said:
Start it up! I'd love for 2ksports to make a footy game. What they have done with MLB The Show, NBA2k, NHL, heck even NFL2k4&5, are nothing short of remarkable. That's a company that "gets it".
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MLB The Show is developed by SIE San Diego (which is why it's a Sony exclusive).
 
Fuck me this is the death knell for this game. Its emphasis on myclub and now even greater lack of licenses is enough for me. Sad times.
 
When you think that all sports games only serve to enhance the interest in the sport/brand it's ridiculous that anything in them has to be licensed in the first place. As if Fifa/Uefa/MLB/NFL/NBA (etc) aren't making enough money already without licensing games companies to use their team names in a game that already promotes those very teams simply by having them in the game. Yes it's the way of the world but that doesn't make it right. They also in my opinion should not be allowed to have the right to sell an exclusive license to one company.

As for PES if they could get in a simple, easy to use editor then it would go a long way to making all this irrelevant. All it needs is a simple csv import and making an option file would be a very quick and easy job. A kit editor, stadium editor, a cup/league generator etc etc. Place all the necessary tools in the game and the game would take on a life of its own with all the modding. If I recall correctly isn't some of this not even allowed? Another ridiculous state of affairs. Give me my money, sod the consumer.

Then maybe Konami could concentrate on the gameplay alone and get the game back to where it was in the earlier years. Imagine all the bells and whistles of today with next gen graphics, sound and so on with the match engine of a pes5/6 and then actually PROGRESSING forwards from there instead of going backwards.

Unfortunately they stood still whilst EA (who must use the same marketing people as Mcdonalds) swooped in and rounded up all the kids and made FIFA the game to have regardless of whether it was a better game or not.

I still find it amazing that the two football games in the world are made in the footballing hotbeds of Canada and Japan!

Surely there must be a games company in Europe or South America who could come up with a decent football game?
 
they never done a proper job of it anyway and forcing us to play in the fake stadium this year (Or play the final in the same stadium for the life of the game in previous games) I wont really miss it as they'll have a fake one in its place we can edit on PC. It will probably hit them in console sales where they make the most dosh but I honestly have no pity for them. They release the game with the same problems(or introduce new ones) year after year it gets worse. They should have a proper career mode (last proper ones were 12 and 13) its just so boring. If they have proper gameplay with fouls, injuries stamina etc and create a career mode with transfers contracts press scouts training with deep, fun with real word elements that would get players hooked and give people the option to add or edit their own European competition they'd sell alot more games than by simply having a poxy licence. I know people will argue licences sell the games to kids but so does word of mouth. Make the game good and people will buy and play it. Thats what happened with the old Pes. No licence and little known, but great gameplay, interesting masterleague and word of mouth turned it into the phenomenon of PES and that why i'm 40 and on a forum about a football computer game. The love of PES
 
manmachine said:
I'd love a 3rd footy game, but even if 2k started work TODAY on one, it would take years ...
Maybe Sports Interactive could be tempted to produce a playable version of Football Manager? Although there's probably a very good reason why this hasn't happened already/won't happen.
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This would be the dream. manage in fm and then play your own match. If you told me 18 years ago we wouldn't have a game similar to that idea i would have said you're mad. But were not even close to having a manager sim in PES or FIFA similar to FM 18 years ago. 18 fucking years and we get the masterleage of pes 2018. Shocking and another reason I dont care about loosing the licence as konami have alot bigger issues in the game
 
Eh, 2k would be worse than Konami honestly. Atleast that's the impression I got after playing their wwe games. Definitely wouldn't want them to get hands on exclusive license of UEFA.
 
I want to cut the optimism of some people hoping for better focus on gameplay and remind them that after PES 6 came PES 2008. And I believe it's PES 2008 that Konami is headed towards, not PES 6.
 
This way FIFA has no competition anymore. I would not be surprised if EA makes FIFA an even worse milk-cow as it already is.
 
Even on the ps2 there was more choice for football games. Imagine if there was only one?
 
Unfortunately I feel that Konami have already burnt their bridges with the community for years now, We've warned about that and I'm afraid that having 500 editors in the game won't bring back the power of kitserver and the glory days of the past.

PES can only take over Fifa with proper gameplay, None of that scripting, Rubber banding and catch up bug stuff in the future please,Fix fouls and bring the Master League to a playable state then think about winning the community back.

Also they need a better PR policy, We're all loyal paying customers who have been filling surveys and giving feedback for years now, As well as contributing to forums and social media accounts. Because we like the offline element it doesn't mean that we can be bullied by their people and lied to.

More transparency and a strong will to connect with the community can go a long way, Otherwise they can keep promoting dead/retired players till they die/retire as a franchise themselves!
 
Sami 1999 said:
Eh, 2k would be worse than Konami honestly. Atleast that's the impression I got after playing their wwe games. Definitely wouldn't want them to get hands on exclusive license of UEFA.
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Those games are developed by Yuke's, not 2k internally.
 
I'm disappointed but let's face it; the CL in PES was never a particularly good out-of-the-box offering. Half the participating teams are unlicensed or missing completely. The number of official stadia is pathetic. It's always been a half-arsed effort even if the reason why is beyond Konami's control. I have no doubt EA will scoop up the CL licence to make their product even more complete which only compounds PES's lack of market share against FIFA.

Interesting to see where PES goes from here. It's such a fractured, messy product in terms of licensing. It doesn't hold much appeal for the overwhelmingly casual football game audience; people who don't want to mess about patching/editing. Being all about the gameplay is no longer enough.
 
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