How EA's FIFA destroyed PES

FIFA vs PES – the two biggest football gaming franchises of all time. Goal investigates the battle between PES and FIFA and why shifts in popularity and market dominance have changed since both games arrived on the scene.

“Konami knows where it all went wrong.”
Wes Yin-Poole – Editor, Eurogamer

“That’s where Konami dropped the ball.”
ChuBoi - Content Creator, Esports Host

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 8.7million. 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?

0:00 - FIFA vs PES: when did EA break away?
0:50 - FIFA International Soccer: Origins
1:32 - Konami precursors to PES
2:21 - PES: cultural impact
4:16 - EA take control
5:18 - FIFA Ultimate Team arrives
6:52 - FUT takes FIFA to another level
7:27 - Can PES22 match up to FIFA22?

[GOAL]

Which football game is the most influential of all time?

[rhenshort]

Next should be: How EA's FIFA killed EA's FIFA.

[BlueTigerReal]

EA just has the licenses, PES has the better gameplay.

[cuLiref]

PES is gameplay
While FIFA is everything but, gameplay

[konnichiyawa]

Fifa - arcadey, you play with your friends or when you tryna have fun

Pes - realism, playing alone and want to experience simulation

[videorising]

I transitioned from being a long time player of FIFA to PES, and I must say I don't even feel like looking back at FIFA again. The gameplay mechanics on PES are way better and dwarf FIFA in comparison.
I never cared for licensed teams or FUT, hence it's all the more sorted in terms of choice for me.

[johnnylangen]

the Licenses put Fifa ahead. like it always is, MOney Wins in the End

[sushantbhandari]

LMAO.. Did that dude really say that FIFA has better gameplay than PES?

[lf]

IF Konami bring back the master league of PES 13 and with better my club like they said we want to do in PES 22.

[GrimmFilmEnt]

Trying to compete with FIFA is what brought down PES to low levels. It used to have its own thing, focused on realistic football gameplay as much as that was possible back in the day. Then Konami tried to make a buck in FIFA's arcade back yard and the spiral began. Add to that Konami's insistence on not listening to the fan base, removing features that were liked for no reason, adding things no one asked for and a stubborn resistance to redo animations, physics and quality of life within the game, and you get what you have today. There are instances in which PES blows you away, but I find myself only able to play two to three games of ML a day before the rest simply frustrates me to quit.


Rails are all over the place and you have to use Super Cancel almost all the time to combat them.

AI has "in possession" and "out of possession" modus operandi which results in frustrating instances of players ignoring a loose ball when they can clear get possession of it. This is most evident when you pass or kick the ball and it touches an opponent. Your entire team immediately switches from "in possession" to "out of possession" and players run back into defensive position when the ball can clearly be recovered. You have to manually fight to get it back, use Super Cancel and what not and guide a player to the ball. Sometimes it works, most times it doesn't. Not teaching your AI that the ball is a crucial part of the game of footBALL has been an issue I've had with PES for ages and Konami refuses to tackle it.

The ball is still not an independent object but stuck on rails along with everything else. It doesn't bounce off players as it should and creating an unpredictable result with every shot/pass/cross. Instead, when the AI shots and there's a deflection, 9/10 times it's a corner. Don't even get me started on goal bound deflections. In the last week alone I've seen AI GK easily save deflections from my shots while my GK stumbles and I concede.

Animations are stale, I'm pretty sure they haven't introduced new ones since Winning Eleven days and even those are mostly feints and tricks.

Referees in PES make Premiere League referees look like prime Pierluigi Collina. This is also due to rails. I understand how difficult this must be to program in a game, but witnessing NFL style tackles that don't result in fouls and then seeing a simple nudge be called. C'mon!

Speed of the game is all off. Shots have no whip anymore and the ball is floaty. That used to be something I adored about PES, being able to perform exactly the type of shot I wanted from every angle. Finesse shows around the GK, lacing the ball through him, hitting it high, rolling it low past the GK, you name it. Now you have to go full manual to pick a corner but the way the players strike the ball is both odd and doesn't have the same feel as the old days.

Crossing in ePES 2021 is something that irks me to no end. Players have to face toward the box to cross?! Really?! Right footed player running down the right channel can't wrap his foot around the ball to send it in the box with pace and a modicum of precision?! I mean, really?! Crossing used to be fun as hell, you could place the ball near post, middle of the box, far post, ahead of the player, directly at him, high arc, fast and curving, the lost. And you could actually get on the end of it with some power. Now, every header floats about.

Corners, same thing. There used to be nuance about PES corners. It mattered if you sent an in swinger or out swinger. Out swinger would keep the ball away from the GK, the headers had more power and swerve from them. In swingers had to be sent farther from the GK or he'd catch them and heading the ball required a player who was actually good at it. They added set piece strategy and that's great, but there is not whip from corners anymore.

Free kicks used to require practice, moving the ball around the box, trying it with a left footed player, right footed player, using power or swerve. Now, every single players starting with the default time can score a stunner. While I agree that hitting a ball over the box with swerve is relatively easy for professional football players, scoring is a different thing. ePES 2021 is jam paced with free kick specialists.

Contextual reactions from players are non-existent, always have been. I'm talking about the ball bouncing off players like from a brick wall when there's a chance a corner might happen for the AI. Not delicate touch to prevent that, no last ditch slide and swing to prevent the ball from going out of bounds and resulting with a corner. Context matters in football.

Speaking of touches. First touch needs a comeback and it needs waaaay more variety and control. First touch is the difference between getting into a good shooting position, avoiding a defender, et cetera.

Players not responding to input but taking their merry time before passing despite an AI pressing them! What's that about?! CONTEXT MATTERS!

But all of that is too much for Konami. I'm desperate for another developer to make a realism based football game. Kitana media forum boards are packed with ideas that are getting forwarded to Konami but they don't listen. You can make an entire football game from those ideas.

Argh, whatever.

[_xelua_]

altrenate title: how EA turned their game into pay to win

[rahuldebnath]

Pes 2015 was goated with soundtracks to gameplay fifa was no where near enjoyable. Kids these days just know fifa microtransactions and game modes, the real gameplay and realism it was all pes. SAD they didnt have licenses. It was an era

[ThisIsFootballGaming]

As covered, Konami destroyed PES with PES 2008 - a disastrous jump to next gen. But credit to EA, they rightly owned that generation through gameplay, not because of FUT. In the last five years we've been shafted because - as Chuboi says - gameplay doesn't matter. Online play and e-sports so paramount that AI has been neglected and both titles have major flaws. There's a reason why the retro community thrives.

[AngelValentinRivera]

I never knew PES existed until 2014
I’ve been playing FIFA since 2002.
I learned about PES Thanks to PS Plus free game back in 14’ & i loved it!

[oheneba_]

Fifa fun boys in a nutshell 8:05 and 8:34. Do you see the contradiction? Man already admitted it’s not really about gameplay and then comes back saying fifa has the better gameplay, funny thing is pes mainly focuses on gameplay since they can’t complete with fifa with licensing.























I know liking a game is subjective but come on, football games are meant to be a simulation of football matches and pes does just that 🤷🏾‍♂️, anyone who has eyes would see.

[jacobfield]

PES was good on PS2 but struggled after that. PES 2021 was ok but it was too late by then.

[technicrox]

When Pes always win by better Gameplay, Graphics and Simulation

Fifa fans:- 8:06

[tomfom]

He says he's not a fifa fanboy, but he says that as a FIFA fan they want a good PES 😂

[basti]

7:44 seeing this after the shambolic efootball 2022 release is hilarious.

[thepsplayer]

I'm sorry but I think that the people speaking in this video haven't played PES in quite some time. I respect their opinion but they are literally saying that PES is no where near as good as FIFA whereas many people think that PES has better Gameplay.
And now I think that FIFA is going to flop soon. They are releasing more or less the same game every year and players are getting really pissed off now.