Football video games are big business.
I can’t believe it!
I do not believe it.
Vamos!
The genre dominated by two titles.
People would kill to be in the position of FIFA.
Those were the glory days of PES.
But in 2020, one of those titles generated
more money than football itself.
This is stupid what has happened?
In 2008 the rivalry was very much alive,
with Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer 09
selling 6.9 million copies,
compared to EA Sports FIFA 09 title with 8.7 million.
But by 2014, PES sales had dwindled to 1.7m
while FIFA had ballooned to 18 million.
So how did EA break away?
And is it possible to identify one title
that changed everything?
In 1993 EA Sports released FIFA International Soccer,
the first incarnation of the series
and only featured national teams.
The early 90s was when I started.
I think I started playing when I was six.
Do you remember the first FIFA title you played?
The very first one we had, because I’ve got
two older brothers, so we had a [SEGA] Megadrive.
The very first one was FIFA, maybe 95 or 96,
which I didn’t get into because I was too young.
I actually played the first ever FIFA.
The best feature about it was, if you got a yellow card,
you could just run around
and the referee could never chase you.
It was good because, if you’re playing your friends,
you just keep running and do that for about 30 minutes
and your friend just gets angry
and you never finish the game, so you never lose.
By 1996 Konami had weighed into to take on EA Sports,
with their first release Goal Storm
or World Soccer Winning Eleven in Japan.
A year later, marked the release of
International Superstar Soccer Pro, or ISS for short.
These are the precursors to Pro Evolution Soccer,
to the PES games that we know now.
They were all absolutely fantastic.
For a long time football games had
a very obvious way to score.
Because of the isometric camera, it was
very easy to line up with the goal and, just basically
nail it every single time.
[International] Superstar Soccer created a sense of
randomness I guess and, in football in real life,
the ball often does random things that footballers can’t control.
It got that sense across and I think that was one
of the reasons why those games
were so popular at the time.
By 2001, Konami were in control - with their first release
of the evolved title Pro Evolution Soccer,
outselling the number of units sold of EA’s FIFA Football 2002.
Those were the glory days of PES.
I was at university at the time.
All of my friends were playing PES.
The memories I’ve got of playing PES
with my friends at university are some of
the fondest gaming memories I have.
It was PES 5. When my brother bought PES 5,
and it had Thierry Henry, John Terry on the cover
and I’d never really been into these games before
and then that one was the one that just,
I think the thing is with those games is that
it was so simple and, because it allowed you to customise
so much stuff, your imagination could just basically go wild.
That’s Zidan there, just popping his head through.
Then Joey Coley next and the goalkeeper Ivarov,
who’s another PES legend.
But Dodo was the guy who I had a fight with.
You’re saying I’m not good enough,
you’re not good enough, son.
In fact, come here and say that Dodo.
He battered me to be fair
but we’re both quite hard men of football
and that’s what happens.
Come on you Dodo.
Is that all you’ve got?
I think my ribs are all broken.
The whole thing with the way it captures your imagination
and you become the manager,
you can actually imagine yourself doing team talks
before a big game and stuff.
I think that’s the way a lot of people play these football games.
Can you send Castolo in please?
Hi boss.
Have you been saying things about Sinama Pongolle’s hat?
No boss, I never said anything about his hat, boss.
What did you say about his hat Castolo?
Honestly, I really thought that this thing I was
planning of being the manager with a suit on,
actually doing team talks, I was so certain that
a lot of guys would have already done it.
I thought there was probably some huge FIFA people
who had done this thing already,
so I thought it would be my take on it,
but it turned out no one has done it,
which blew my mind.
But despite the success and cultural legacy
of Pro Evolution games, by 2006,
the balance of power started shifting,
when Xbox & PlayStation released their next generation consoles.
The transition to the PS3 is a crucial moment in the fate of PES.
EA came out with a new engine for FIFA
which improved the gameplay side of things.
It made it match up with Konami on that end for PES.
PES could always say, ‘we have the best gameplay’
and it did but, with that transition,
they lost that and they were unable to say
that they had the best gameplay and FIFA
started to have the best gameplay.
Is it possible to pinpoint the one game,
either from a gameplay perspective
or, you mentioned, from a technical or market share perspective,
that’s the most important one,
the most important game?
Well, I think it’s really important to point out FIFA 09.
EA Sports’ release in 2008, FIFA 09
had Ronaldinho and Wayne Rooney on the cover
and a particular feature that was to debut
that year was Ultimate Team,
which was an optional £8 add on
and unbeknownst to both companies at the time
was about to change the future of football gaming.
Basically, Ultimate Team is what did it.
That’s where Konami dropped the ball.
I don’t think they took online very seriously, then EA came in.
They got the licences which is pivotal to the
marketing and they just ran away with it from there.
This mode is one of the most
significant video game modes of all time.
It reimagines what revenue could be
and engagement could be
for sports video game and any video game.
Even though Ultimate Team grew into one of the biggest
gaming phenomenon’s of all time,
it took time to get going.
I started working at EA Sports in 2012.
I came on halfway through FIFA 12, I believe.
My job at the time, believe it or not, was to
popularise and manage the community for FIFA Ultimate Team.
At the time you didn’t tell how much of a revolution you’re starting.
It wasn’t such a full driving force of revenue at the time,
you could kind of ‘do this, do that’,
and every once in a while someone come check in
and ‘these guys are making a lot of money but
just keep doing your thing’.
I think after '14 this is when they’re like
‘Woah, this is literally a giant chunk of revenue that
is driving the entire company’.
From the foundations laid by the relatively quiet
introduction of FIFA Ultimate Team,
EA Sports broke away and has never looked back.
EA’s grip on licensing is so tight,
and Konami’s resources are nowhere near as vast as EA’s.
What Konami is doing is basically fighting for scraps,
it’s signing deals with some clubs,
it’s doing licensing work for some leagues
across the world but the big licences are now
probably locked in with FIFA for
the next decade at least.
Can anyone realistically compete with EA?
I personally don’t think so.
We will see what Konami has up their sleeves
because they took a year off this past year.
They actually didn’t release a brand new game
in the series for the first time in years
in an attempt to make sure that the next version
comes out on next generation consoles
the PS5 and the XBox series X and S
and really makes the most of it and really nails that
console transition because they know how badly
it went for them before. They know how important
it is for them to get it right now.
Like I mentioned before, nowadays it’s not
even about the gameplay anymore,
it’s just about what people are talking about,
what gets people excited, what gets the marketing,
just the involvement with the real world of football.
Well, if the last year has taught us anything,
it’s that crazy things can happen.
That's true.
Thinking about the most recent versions of both games,
how would you compare them in terms of
gameplay as they stand now?
I still think FIFA is superior in terms of gameplay.
People might say ‘oh, you’re a FIFA fanboy or FIFA fan’.
No, I really want PES to be good because,
if PES is good, there’s competition.
Competition breeds innovation, so that means
if there’s competition, FIFA has to improve.
So, if you’re a FIFA fan, I pray that PES is good.
I pray every day that it’s going to be good
because if it’s good then FIFA and EA Sports
have to bring their A game.
If the game can be anywhere near as good
as PES5 was, in terms of gameplay,
I think it could really be a big thing
so I’m really hoping it will be like that.