FIFA vs. PES – the battle for licenses

FC Bayern Munich worked together with FIFA developer EA for three years – now it’s suddenly over. The record champion has switched to the rival Pro Revolution Soccer, PES for short.

This means that this year the Allianz Arena will only be found exclusively in PES 2020. The stars of the German record champion will be brought to life in the game through elaborate 3D full-body scans.

Juventus Turin and Manchester United have also joined forces with PES for this year. Especially annoying for FIFA fans: The name rights of the club “Juventus Turin” are now also in the hands of PES alone, for FIFA 20 the “Old Lady” had to be renamed “Piemonte Calico”.

In the long-lasting rivalry between the two series, the tide seems to be turning. In recent years, it has always been PES who have been the losers in terms of licences against FIFA.

PES vs. FIFA

In the beginning, Konami and EA had been able to coexist relatively peacefully in the world of digital football. While FIFA was able to win fans with licenses from the very beginning, PES was able to show off a sophisticated football simulation.

The first five parts of the PES series were absolute favourites for PlayStation 2.

From 2006, however, the balance changed in favour of FIFA, because the visual presentation of the games became better and more important thanks to new technical possibilities.

Realism is more in demand again

As FIFA continued to hold most of the licences of the world’s best-known leagues and associations, the advantages over PES, which had to rely largely on fantasy names, increased.

In 2009, the controversial FIFA Ultimate Team mode, which proved to be very popular, was introduced, while PES became less popular each year. It was only when PES switched to a new game engine in 2014 that there was an upturn – but FIFA had long since established itself as the absolute market leader.

Even though EA continued to claim the most league licences, PES tried to reduce the gap with some important club partnerships slowly.

Both series are active in eSports

The own PES League was founded in 2003. At the final 2019, the winner Walid “usmakabyle” Teban went home with 25.000 US-Dollar.

Thanks to the closed club partnerships, PES also founded the eFootball.Pro League, in which club teams compete against each other. FC Schalke 04, FC Barcelona and AS Monaco are also represented there.

FIFA has formats such as the eChampions League, the Virtual Bundesliga and the Global Series including the eWorld Cup. In the latter case, the winner alone will collect 250,000 US dollars, ten times as much as in the PES final.

The more prestigious events are therefore still in the hands of FIFA due to the existing licenses. Due to a lack of a Bundesliga license, PES could never start its own Virtual Bundesliga.

Despite the respective advantages and disadvantages, FIFA can still retain the upper hand due to its licenses on a higher level.

After all, the competitor is ahead when it comes to the release date: eFootball PES 2020 will be released on 10th September, while FIFA 20 will have to wait until 27th September.