UEFA Champions League Exclusive to PES For Another 3 Years

[Steve_OS]

After revealing Neymar Jr. as the cover athlete for PES 2016 yesterday, Konami has followed that up today with some exclusive licensing news, as they gear up for the big reveal tomorrow.

Konami has extended their exclusive rights to the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League for the next 3 years, allowing them to use all iconography and presentation elements associated with the competitions exclusively within the PES series.

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.

Read the full press release below.

KONAMI AND UEFA ANNOUNCE NEW THREE-YEAR DEAL AS PES SERIES RETAINS EXCLUSIVE RIGHTS TO EUROPE’S GREATEST CLUB FOOTBALL COMPETITIONS

Konami Digital Entertainment B.V. has extended its agreement to exclusively feature the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League elements in forthcoming PES (Pro Evolution Soccer) titles for another three years.

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.

"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,” commented Sean Ratcliffe, European Brand Director at Konami Digital Entertainment B.V. “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.”

"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" commented Guy Laurent-Epstein - Marketing Director UEFA Events S.A. "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."

[Turbojugend]

Re: UEFA Champions League Exclusive to PES For Another 3 Years

Cool... I guess?

As a huge fan of both FIFA and PES I just wish "license exclusivity" would disappear for both games. It probably never will but I can dream.

[HenryClay1844]

Cool... I guess?

As a huge fan of both FIFA and PES I just wish "license exclusivity" would disappear for both games. It probably never will but I can dream.

Absolutely! Exclusive licensing is terrible for sports game consumers, but this is the kind of world we live in.

[Ermolli]

Re: UEFA Champions League Exclusive to PES For Another 3 Years

Cool... I guess?

As a huge fan of both FIFA and PES I just wish "license exclusivity" would disappear for both games. It probably never will but I can dream.

As you said, it's good news for PES but bad for gamers. I'd like that both games could have any license they want and compete instead on what should really matter, gameplay and game modes mostly.

[KennyJ1976]

Other than keeping this license away from EA and having them get an exclusive deal to the point where PES couldn't even have a generic Champions and Europa League tournament, I find this exclusive license completely useless. First off, I'm guessing the deal still doesn't include all of the teams participating in each tournament, and EA will more than likely still have generic tournaments in its game, minus all the bells and whistles that PES has. I agree exclusive licenses suck, but if I was KONAMI, I would have made the deal to where EA couldn't have anything resembling the Champions or Europa League in their game period.

[buckeyezombie]

Re: UEFA Champions League Exclusive to PES For Another 3 Years

This puts to rest the end of PES because of the Konami shake up

Sent from my SPH-L720T using Tapatalk

[ty5oke]

'Iconic' master league mode, haha. It was iconic 10 years ago maybe but has lacked a lot lately. Really hope it gets some huge love this year.

[bxphenom7]

👏🏼 I really hope the game changes its atmosphere in games in terms of the crowd, fouls, reactions, and overall presentation. And of course, animations!

[dubcity]

Re: UEFA Champions League Exclusive to PES For Another 3 Years

This is more about keeping it away from FIFA than anything else. They've been leaning on this license for so long that it's not even a big deal. They'd be better off adding a high profile league, or licensing additional national teams and stadiums.

[RoyceDa59]

Re: UEFA Champions League Exclusive to PES For Another 3 Years

This really doesn't mean much to me and really nothing to get excited about when they lack the atmosphere, stadiums, and even teams to be even taken seriously. I would expect by now having this license great things would come by its been years now and it just seems like a throw in at this point and as one said to just keep it away from FIFA. But I don't feel bad for FIFA, they had there chance with the licence but kept it out of the core game and released separate UEFA Champions league game on the side as a cash cow.

[Putkonen]

Re: UEFA Champions League Exclusive to PES For Another 3 Years

But I don't feel bad for FIFA, they had there chance with the licence but kept it out of the core game and released separate UEFA Champions league game on the side as a cash cow.

What do you mean by that? FIFA World Cup edition? That is the only separate version I think EA has launched in the past.

I agree that this move was basically made to prevent and not to lose that license also to EA and FIFA which already has exclusive rights to so many leagues and teams. So I don't feel bad for FIFA either, the table has been uneven for so many years that PES has to fight with whatever they got and I think CL is a great add to the game.

The main thing, as always, is the edit mode and the variety to it. There has to be the possibility to edit the kits as there was in PS3- version. If that has made better than in 2015, I don't ever care for the licensing.

[KennyJ1976]

What do you mean by that? FIFA World Cup edition? That is the only separate version I think EA has launched in the past.

I agree that this move was basically made to prevent and not to lose that license also to EA and FIFA which already has exclusive rights to so many leagues and teams. So I don't feel bad for FIFA either, the table has been uneven for so many years that PES has to fight with whatever they got and I think CL is a great add to the game.

The main thing, as always, is the edit mode and the variety to it. There has to be the possibility to edit the kits as there was in PS3- version. If that has made better than in 2015, I don't ever care for the licensing.

He means that before PES got the exclusive license back in 09, EA had a game separate from the main FIFA game called the UEFA Champions League.

[TexasFan2005]

Re: UEFA Champions League Exclusive to PES For Another 3 Years

The last time EA released a CL game was in 2007, full priced as well. I'm glad Konami got the license for the reasons already stated, but I wish they would add all of the CL teams for this upcoming year as well as the stadiums for each team. Some variety would be nice.

Also, I like how they put the San Siro stadium in the pic, as that will be the site of the CL final next year.

[Putkonen]

Re: UEFA Champions League Exclusive to PES For Another 3 Years

He means that before PES got the exclusive license back in 09, EA had a game separate from the main FIFA game called the UEFA Champions League.

Oh ok, I can't recall this ever happened. I should've googled it, thanks for the info though.