Will FIFA fans finally be prepared to give PES a chance after ignoring it for the best part of a decade? I think they could, and it may be one of the very few occasions where the pre-owned market directly benefits the publisher. But launching PES first puts Konami in a curiously advantageous position.
There are thousands of you reading stories about FIFA 13 on every day. The attention is still firmly on FIFA, of course. And the move may give PES all that it needs to revive interest in Konami’s flailing footie franchise. PES 2013 releases on September 21, one week before FIFA 13’s launch on September 28. This year, though, Konami is making strides to muscle in on FIFA’s turf. The PR machine even manages to build hype over the release of the game’s packshot, for goodness sake. You only need to look at the sales figures of last year’s game for evidence of that: FIFA 12 generated over $186m at retail within its first week of release, and $39m via DLC alone over the course of the Christmas period, and this year’s game seems well-positioned to shatter those records. These days, FIFA isn’t just one of the hottest properties in sports, but the games industry as a whole. Since then, of course, EA Sports has worked tirelessly to lead FIFA into the footballing limelight.
It was easily the most critically acclaimed, at least, with Pro Evolution Soccer 3 being most football fans’ game of choice over EA Sports’ clumsy counterpart FIFA 04.
The last time Pro Evolution Soccer hit shelves before FIFA, in 2003, it was arguably the most popular football game on the market.