FIFA CRUSHES PES AND RETAINS TITLE AS KING OF FOOTBALL GAME

"In North America, if you say FIFA, the majority of people will think of us rather than the actual governing body." The unabashed view of Matthew Prior, FIFA's creative director, explains why EA Sports' FIFA is king.

But how did the game consumed by so many become the definitive, market leader, when a decade ago it had a major rival for gamers' eyes, ears and dollars in the shape of Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer?

The studio has inevitably benefited from its unique licensing contracts with brands, players and the governing body. Its grip on the living, breathing world of football via its online platform has entrenched the status quo.

Yet PES has sustained a reputation as something bordering on a cult hit, with gameplay that continues to score strongly with audiences. It cannot, though, translate its cultural currency into sales.

Metro's September 2017 review of last year's PES instalment observed: "There's always the feeling that FIFA has merely bought its way to success. But PES has got there purely on its own merits."

So what form does such success take for Konami?

In a review of PES 2017, Steve Boxer for the Guardian wrote: "Since the mid-2000s, Pro Evolution Soccer has resembled one of those once-great footballing names now reduced to scraping an existence in the lower divisions—a Leeds United or Sheffield Wednesday, say.

"PES was the option for the purists, its stimulating fast-paced and highly tactical gameplay providing a thrilling simulation of the beautiful game. But FIFA had the flashy presentation and its expensive official licence, and from 2008 onwards a much-improved on-pitch experience, allowing it to build a seemingly unassailable lead. As a result, FIFA became one of the UK's best-selling games, PES stagnated."

Yes, PES 2016 marked a technological fightback. Reviewers on the whole credited vastly improved gameplay, graphics and physics, and many considered Konami's offering to be superior to its rivals in its in-play offering. Years of deterioration in the market that bordered on vegetation finally looked like they might be reversed, with Boxer writing: "This time around, it's an underdog which, in the areas that count, has the quality to go all the way."

It has proved a false dawn; FIFA rules the world. The numbers for the most recent incarnation tell us the gap is widening. FIFA 17 moved 1.1 million units in its first week of sales in September 2017. During its own opening seven days, PES 2017 racked up barely 50,000.

Sales figures for FIFA 17 smashed even EA's own performance on the previous 12 months, eclipsing FIFA 16's opening-week figures by almost 18 per cent.

FIFA 17 was one of the fastest-selling games ever released in the UK market. For PES, there has been nothing sudden about this downturn in fortunes. Konami's third-quarterly financial review for 2014 revealed a drop in sales from 5.52 million to 3.72 million from 2012 to 2013 (the report charts a drop in "Soccer" sales, of which it is reasonable to assume the vast majority relates to PES).

The drop-off of 1.8 million was a relative plummet compared with falls (in millions) of 0.21, 0.83, 0.40, 0.45 and 0.05 respectively on the previous five years over the same period. Whichever way you slice it, PES has been falling away badly for a long time.

The consensus of a vast improvement in the gameplay, of a cultural renaissance, hasn't fixed the problem. FIFA resembles a high-speed train and PES is trailing in its slipstream.

The trail leads us back a decade. According to former PES producer Shingo Takatsuka, 2007 saw major improvements in the gameplay design at Konami studios. This coincided with the advent of next-gen consoles, but it also marked the last edition of PES that came close to matching FIFA's sales figures. In 2007 FIFA outstripped PES by a negligible 6.55 million to 6.37 million units. Over the next 10 years, the gap widened to chasm-like proportions in 2015, when EA beat Konami by 18.79 million to 1.72 million. PES had imploded in the market, just as the product seemed to be at its strongest.

Prior, a 16-year veteran of the franchise, says: "The licensers really see the value of partnering with us as FIFA has become such an integral part of football. Back in the day when it was just a game running alongside the world of football and it wasn't intrinsically connected, those 'we want to use you' arguments were much harder for us than they are now.

"Licensers now see how massive FIFA is and what an important part of the world of football it is. Everyone wants to be involved. Here in North America, if you say FIFA, the majority of people will think of us rather than the actual governing body. A lot of people over here have gotten into football because of us and our game. The rapid growth in popularity of football in North America is in part down to us."

There is a circularity to the success of the franchise. The wider the network of licenses it holds, the more deeply it is able to entrench itself in the world of football; meanwhile, that integration continually makes alignment with FIFA an essential asset for organisations working within the game, opening up new doors for rights agreements. It's small wonder PES has been washed away in the undertow of the FIFA machine.

Licensing in turn has become a changed animal as the technology has evolved. This has made the struggle to stay on top of the market a dynamic one for EA. McHardy says: "There's so much more additional pressure on our licensing department now from the days when all you could see were the colour of the teams. If you can see all of the details of a kit, when you get in close you can see almost every thread on the shirt. When you consider the complexity of our licensing obligations to the club, we have a licensing obligation to the manufacturers, we have an obligation to all of the leagues. That illustrates how the complexity of our licensing assets have changed."