Though EA Sports’ FIFA series long ago surpassed Pro Evo Soccer to become the undisputed king of football video games, PES chips away at their rival’s superior resources where they can. Konami’s newly announced deal with Barcelona does that in a relatively small but significant way for Barca fans.
As part of the deal, Camp Nou will only appear in PES 2017, as will the club’s anthem. The club and players will still appear in FIFA 17 as well, but their partnership with Konami ensure that they will “be faithfully reproduced in the series using the Team ID and Player ID systems to guarantee that PES 2017 perfectly reflects both the general and individual style of play of the Barca first team.”
It’s unclear whether that means PES will have Messi’s new hairstyle, though.
Judging by the trailer above, it looks like PES is aiming to be a combination of the FIFA games and Football Manager. So if that’s what you want, this might be the game for you.
Anyway, if you’re playing FIFA 17 and wondering why Barcelona’s home matches are played at “Estadi Catalonia” or whatever, this is the reason.