Pro Evolution Soccer

Pro Evolution Soccer (aka P.E.S.), best known as Winning Eleven in Japan and South Korea (aka Republic of Korea) and World Soccer Winning Eleven in North America (USA & Canada), is a football (aka soccer) game, commonly known as the rival of FIFA, produced by Electronic Arts.

HISTORY

GOAL STORM/ISS PRO SERIES

The first football (soccer) game released by KONAMI was Goal Storm, better known as World Soccer Winning Eleven in Japan. The game was released on PlayStation™ and included 26 national teams. Goal Storm was followed by ISS Pro (aka Goal Storm 97) and its sequels, with 1999 release (ISS Pro Evolution) being the first to include club teams! The last ISS Pro Evolution edition was released (in Europe) on 23rd March 2001. For the record, BBC News team gave ISS Pro Evolution 2 a 94% score, citing that "it is the finest football game the world has ever seen".

PRO EVOLUTION SOCCER SERIES

PRO EVOLUTION SOCCER

Since PlayStation 2™ was released a year earlier (in 2000), KONAMI decided by changing the game's concept to add a PS2 version, thus leading Michiru Yamane and Norikazu Miura into naming the European version of the game "Pro Evolution Soccer" (abbreviated as PES). A later Japanese version of the game (named World Soccer: Winning Eleven 5 - Final Evolution) was released just a month after the release of the game in Europe.

PRO EVOLUTION SOCCER 2

An exceptional game with 9/10 rating on IGN, Pro Evolution Soccer 2 was the last Pro Evolution Soccer which did not include permission for any club team. The Japanese and North American versions were succeeded by two updates: Winning Eleven 6 International and Winning Eleven 6 Final Evolution. It was the last game of the series to be released in Europe for PlayStation™ and the unique of the series released on Nintendo® GameCube™, although it was the Final Evolution update. Pro Evolution Soccer 2 is the final in this series with locked club teams. The only playable teams in Competitions, Exhibitions and Training are a bunch of national teams and the club retrieved from ML Data. ML clubs are actual European clubs with fake names, shirts etc. The weird part of the game is that every Dutch footballer is named "Oranges###" (with '#' implying a digit). This is the last game featuring Yugoslavia national team, which was renamed to "Serbia and Montenegro" from PES 4 to PES 6. In PES 2008, Serbia was firstly introduced, with Montenegro following in PES 2010.

FACTS:

• PES 2 used Umbro as the ball manufacturer, scoreboard ad and training sponsor.
• PES 2 intro was "We will rock you" performed by Queen. When winning a tournament, the outro could not be skipped and you had to listen to "We are the champions" by Queen, while enjoying the champion team and looking at the game's credits.

PRO EVOLUTION SOCCER 3 & 4

Similar games, although there are major differences;

• There was a huge improvement in commentary; although the user could choose the commentary name of the team in PES 3, it was disabled on PES 4, but returned (slightly changed) on PES 2015.
• PES 4 included permissions for over 3000 players.
• PES 3 was the last to have several teams from different leagues. On the contrary, PES 4 was the renovative edition to have exclusive permissions for Serie A (Italy), Liga Española (Spain) and Eredivisie (The Netherlands). From those 3, Eredivisie is the only league which NEVER included fake player or club names! PES 4 included a total of 80 European clubs and 57 national teams, which weren't divided in separate continents.
• PES 4 was the first PES to feature a referee appearing on the pitch. The player profiles included more details and KONAMI had also added new tricks, skills and tactics. For the record, it was the last PES edition (before PES 2015) which included the national team of Jamaica AND the last not having licenses for any club from the Rest of World (ROW).
• PES 3 was the first not to be released on PlayStation™ and the first to be released on PC. On the other hand, PES 4 was the first to be released on Microsoft® XBOX™.
• PES 4 was the first PES to include the Serbian cub FK Partizan from Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro (present Serbia) and Cruzeiro from Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
• PES 4 was awarded with the Game Convention award on 2004 for the best gampelay.
• PES 4 was the first PES to include Serbia and Montenegro national team and the last to include South Korea national team as "Korea".

PES 3 and PES 4 have something in common; both PES 3 and PES 4 covers included one of the top referees in modern football history, Pierluigi Collina (Italy), although here we can spot a difference; the cover of PES 3 (the first to include an actual person from the football world) was orange with Collina standing in front of a stadium with his signature written with golden letters in front of him. The cover of PES 4 (the first to include football players) included Thierry Henry (France) and Francesco Totti (Italy) behind Collina, with Parc des Princes (Paris, France, included ingame with a fake name -> Lutecia Park) as the cover's background.

PRO EVOLUTION SOCCER 5 & 6

Truly magnificent games, both with exceptional ratings. From my point of view, PES 5 indeed is by far the best game of the previous decade (2000-2009).

PRO EVOLUTION SOCCER 5

PES 5 was the last to include the German top division -of course without license-, which lasted only for within two versions of the game. With thousands of licensed players, 57 national teams and over 130 European clubs, PES 5 was something challenging back in 2005. The interesting part was that 2 English clubs had licenses; Arsenal (London) and Chelsea (London), the home stadiums of which were licensed and included ingame (Highbury and Stamford Bridge respectively). The front cover and the back cover of PES 5 are showing John Terry (England, Chelsea) and Thierry Henry (France, Arsenal). These two players are also featured in the main menu of the game, alongside with Didier Drogba (Ivory Coast, Chelsea).

PES 5 was the first edition of Pro Evolution Soccer to be released on PlayStation® Portable (aka PSP™), the last to be released on Microsoft® XBOX™ and the first to include a Network Mode for online matches; some serious improvement! KONAMI added new showboating animations (improved tricks and skills) for high-adrenaline matches. The weather conditions were improved by adding snow and breath fog (when choosing winter).

PES 5 QUOTES

“

When improvement reaches greatness

”

-GamePro GR

“

The ultimate football game ruler

”

-www.gameover.gr

“

Dear Lord thank you, Pro Evolution Soccer 5 is coming

”

-PlayStation 2 Official GR

FACTS:

• PES 5 was the only Pro Evolution Soccer edition to feature match kit customization; the user was able to chose the shirt, the shorts and the socks in a random order, e.g. home shirt, away shorts and socks.
• PES 5 was the first to include (unlicensed) Shakhtar Donetsk from Ukraine and the last to include licensed Chelsea from England.
• PES 5 intro song is named "Club Foot", performed by Kasabian.

PRO EVOLUTION SOCCER 6

PES 6 (released as Winning Eleven 10 in Japan and South Korea, as Winning Eleven X on XBOX 360 and as Winning Eleven: Pro Evolution Soccer 2007 in USA) was the second PES edition to include Other European clubs with licenses but also the very first with actual shirts not only for Japan and South Korea. It was nice that although Juventus (Turin, Italy) were relegated in Serie B, KONAMI decided to include the "Old Lady" as an "Other European Club". The front cover (UK edition) included Internazionale star from Brazil, Adriano, and John Terry, who was also on the back, wearing a KONAMI PES 6 shirt.

As it appears, PES 6 had fully licensed the Argentine national team, the Spanish national team and alongside with the previously mentioned European leagues, the addition of fully licensed French Ligue 1. Not all so called "Other European Clubs" were fully licensed; the same with the Other South American Clubs; Patagonia (Boca Juniors, Argentina), Pampas (River Plate, Argentina) and Caopolo (São Paulo, Brazil). PES 6 also introduced a new mode called "Random Selection Match", which enabled the user to choose a team with players from 1-4 clubs or from a whole league and play against another club with similar settings.

OTHER EUROPEAN CLUBS	(real name)	(city)	(nation)
Bruxelles	RSC Anderlecht	Brussels	Belgium
FC Belgium	Club Brugge KV	Brugge	Belgium
AC Czech	AC Sparta Prague	Prague	Czech Republic
FC Kopenhagen ***	FC Copenhagen (alternative)	Copenhagen	Denmark
Bayern Munich *, ****		Munich	Germany
Olympiacos Piraeus ****	Olympiakos Piraeus (alternative)	Piraeus	Greece
Athenakos FC	Panathinaikos FC	Athens	Greece
Juventus ***		Turin	Italy
Rosenborg BK ***		Trondheim	Norway
Benfica **, ****	SL Benfica (alternative)	Lisbon	Portugal
Porto ***	FC Porto (alternative)	Porto	Portugal
Sporting Lisbon ****	Sporting CP (alternative)	Lisbon	Portugal
Celtic ***		Glasgow	Scotland
Rangers ***		Glasgow	Scotland
Djurgardens IF ***	Djurgårdens IF (alternative)	Stockholm	Sweden
FC Bosphorus	Beşiktaş JK	Constantinople (İstanbul)	Turkey
Constanti	Fenerbahçe SK	Constantinople (İstanbul)	Turkey
Galatasaray ***		Constantinople (İstanbul)	Turkey
Dynamo Kiev ***	Dynbamo Kyiv (alternative)	Kiev	Ukraine

(*) Bayern was firstly introduced with license. On the other hand, the other German clubs disappeared from PES.

(**) On the back side of the cover, among the other licensed clubs, Benfica was cited as "Benefica Lisboa", although the club's name is correct ingame.

(***) The club was licensed in PES 5.

(****) Newly licensed.

Apart from the Other Clubs from Europe and South America, the last edition to feature the Serbia and Montenegro national team also featured 18 generic teams with names from A to R (Team A, Team B etc.). This phenomenon was a chance for PES patchers to add the missing German Top Division (Bundesliga) or any other league.

PES 6 QUOTES

“

Say goodbye to your social life - the best football game ever has just got even better

”

-Loaded

“

PES 6 is the more demanding, skilful and ultimately rewarding game

”

-PSM3

FACTS:

• PES 6 was the first to be released on Nintendo® DS™. It also was the last to include licensed Arsenal (England), prior to PES 2017.
• PES 6 was the last to feature referee selection.

PRO EVOLUTION SOCCER 2008

In 2007, Shingo Takatsuka (alias Seabass) and his developing team decided to slightly change the concept of the title; the European consumers were looking forward to play "Pro Evolution Soccer 7", since it was a sequel to Pro Evolution Soccer 6. Some people think that naming the game "Pro Evolution Soccer 2008" is a way to look similar to FIFA, e.g. FIFA 08 - PES 2008, thus enabling a way to help the customer link the two rival games.

Here are some interesting facts about this edition;

• It was the first edition to feature Serbia national football team.
• It was the first edition to feature capital letters everywhere.
• It was the last edition without Become a Legend mode.
• Really odd as it might seem, the two licensed clubs from the England League were Newcastle United (whose player at the time -Michael Owen- was featured in the European cover) and Tottenham Hotspur. The 'Spurs' have re-appeared in PES with license, but PES 2008 was the only PES edition to include licensed 'Magpies'.
• It was the first edition to be released on Nintendo® Wii™, PlayStation® 3 and mobile phone devices.
• It was the first edition to license Turkey, Greece, and Portugal national team.
• PES 2008 was named the "OFFICIAL VIDEO GAME OF THE ENGLAND TEAM".
• PES 2008 received the Game Convention award on 2007 for the best PS2 game.
• It also was the first edition with fully licensed other clubs with new additions, such as Red Star Belgrade (debut), Helsingborgs IF (debut), AEK Athens (appeared in PES 4 as "AC Greek") etc.
• The epic intro of PES 2008 has offered many memories that get unveiled each time when someone listens to "Thank you very much", a song performed by Kaiser Chiefs.

PES 2008 was a big renovation at the time; KONAMI developed the unique feature of Teamvision™, which meant that the computer would define the playing style of the user's club. KONAMI also added passing under the feet of the opponent and air struggling for the ball possession. The free kick engine was improved, as well as the addition of 'foul ways' to get the win; newly introduced diving and shirt pulling. Seabass's team also improved the facial expressions of the players, the shirt graphics, added more goal celebrations, made face scanning possible in Edit Mode and generally impressed PES community. PES 2008 also introduced a new pair of English commentators, Jon Champion and Mark Lawrenson, replacing Peter Brackley and Trevor Brooking respectively.

PES 2008 QUOTES

“

If football is your life, then PES 2008 is your game.

”

-KONAMI

“

Excellent game... an indescribably topnotch upgrade

”

-Zoo UK

PRO EVOLUTION SOCCER 2009

Manchester United license return, Liverpool FC licensed, UEFA Champions League and Become a Legend modes appear for the first time, new "inbox" feature for the online mode, slightly improved, a less epic intro, newly introduced Other Clubs, such as Steaua Bucharest (Romania), unlicensed Liga Española (Spanish Top Division), revamped Master League... PES 2009 in a nutshell. The least surprising edition of PES -at the time-, something obvious, as the overall of the ratings is much lower than the previous editions. The XBOX 360, PS3 and PC version lacked of nationality changing ability, thus forcing the PC users to use applications made by PES patchers to edit the nationalities of the players. Alongside with UEFA Champions League licensing, KONAMI had also agreed with Setanta Sports to license PES 2009.

PRO EVOLUTION SOCCER 2010

The first edition of the current decade was an improved version of PES 2009. Licensing UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League (debut), Liverpool FC (England), Manchester United (England), eredivisie (The Netherlands), Ligue 1 (France), PES 2010 was the finest experience. First of all, it was the last PSP edition of PES which included only one stadium, Blautraum Stadion (the fake name of the unlicensed Bielefelder Alm, home stadium of Arminia Bielefeld, a German club featured without license in PES 4 and PES 5). Secondly, PES 2010 provided for the first time the following menu languages; Swedish, Russian and Greek. By the way, the intro was dedicated to UCL, as it appeared for a second year in a row as licensed.

PES 2010 FACTS

• It was the last edition of PES to feature the list with the blank teams (Team A, Team B etc.).
• The game was named "OFFICIAL MERCHANDISE OF www.manutd.com", "OFFICIAL VIDEO GAME OF LIVERPOOL FC" and once again "OFFICIAL VIDEO GAME OF THE ENGLAND TEAM". It was the last to feature both licensed Liverpool FC and Anfield, prior to PES 2017.
• It was the last PES edition from the "stone years" (2008-2009) which didn't include fluid commentary.
• Two Kaiser Chiefs songs were included in the game's playlist; "Ruby" and "Never miss a beat".

PES 2010 QUOTES

“

Get ready for the fullest football experience

”

-KONAMI

PRO EVOLUTION SOCCER 2011

Fluid commentary again on every console, new graphics, Greek commentary provided by Christos Sotirakopoulos and Georgios Thanailakis, stadium choice on PSP, last PES edition to feature Lionel Messi on its cover, UCL once again, Manchester United official merchandise and official video game of the England Team, last edition with unlicensed Liga Española (Spanish League), a real innovation. This was the second PES edition of the current decade and became a PSP best-seller (Platinum)! UCL and UEL once again, but with the addition of Copa Santander Libertadores, the South American equivalent of the UEFA Champions League, and UEFA Super Cup, the ultimate battle between the UCL and the UEL winner. Truly renovated Edit mode, revamped Master League (a lot better than the awful version in PES 2010), better graphics, new player profile details, more shoes, more hairstyles, more goal celebrations, more national teams, a wide variety on PES Shop; in other words, a really promising game with great improvement chances.

PES 2011 QUOTES

“

Passion, Pride, Skills - Get ready to improve your abilities

”

-KONAMI

PRO EVOLUTION SOCCER 2012

PES 2012 was released on a wide variety of platforms and mobile phones, eventually being the last to be produced by Shingo Takatsuka. A World Class game with -unfortunately- a narrow variety of music tracks. The European cover introduced Cristiano Ronaldo, who re-appears after PES 2008, where he was wearing his Portugal national shirt, since his club was not licensed.

PES 2012 FACTS

• PES 2012 contains 30 stadiums, 17 of which are licensed.
• PES 2012 artificial intelligence (A.I.) was totally improved.
• The graphics remained the same.
• Bayer Leverkusen (Germany) re-appears, after their last PES appearance on PES 5 without license.
• Some UCL clubs are missing, like APOEL Nicosia (Cyprus), the club which beat Olympique Lyonnais (France) on Penalty Shoot-Out and qualified for the first time in the Quarter Finals, but was drawn with Real Madrid. The funny thing is that although Wisła Kraków (Poland) had disqualified (by losing to APOEL), they were featured in PES 2012, in the Other Clubs section of the game.
• KRC Genk, Trabzonspor, Dijon FCO appear for the first time. AC Ajaccio return, after their last appearance on PES 5 without license, as "Corse Sud".

PRO EVOLUTION SOCCER 2013

Second year in a row with Real Madrid super star, Cristiano Ronaldo, on the cover, but the first PES to be produced by Kei Masuda, the successor of Shingo 'Seabass' Takatsuka. PES 2013 is still loved by PES fans, although the graphics are less realistic than Kojima's "Fox Engine", which is used from PES 2014 onwards. Improved commentaries and a surprise; no PES Shop on PC, PS3 and XBOX 360. PES Shop was kept on PSP and PS2, while the other consoles had all the unlockables available; classic teams, classic players, classic balls...

KONAMI really did a great job with PES 2013, since PES ID enabled unique special moves and appearances for the European and South American football stars. The silly "shoe skills" were removed, while a new move was added; by pressing the "pass" button twice ("A" on XBOX 360 controller, "X" on Computer Keyboard, "X" on PS3 controller), the player was able to perform a standing tackle and steal the ball in a better way. Pass and shoot manual control was firstly introduced, thus enabling the player to act exactly the way he wants.

Kei Masuda's crew also developed "Pro Active Artificial Intelligence" (PRO ACTIVE A.I.), which made the teammates 'smarter', by automatically requesting passes when a space was revealed (while attacking) and by defending as if they were professionals. Apart from that, goalkeeper's A.I. was significantly updated, by adding new and improved moves and decisions.

PES 2013 FACTS

• PES 2013 is the first to include Campeonato Brasileiro Série A (aka Brasileirão, Brazil).
• PES 2013 is the last to feature PES 2008 graphics (which were improved in PES 2011).
• Skill training was absolutely great; no doubt!
• PES 2013 was the last PES version to publish a PC demo version before the full game was published. The most famous Hellenic PES site (www.wehellas.gr), which is well known for its PES patches, its great forum and its giveaways, created a demo unlocker for PES 2013 demo, which enabled PES users to unlock all the locked features of the game, thus forcing KONAMI not to produce a PES 2014 demo on PC before the game was released, because the demo unlocker sadly revealed some licenses which were supposed to be a surprise (probably a reference to the Brazilian League).
• PES 2013 was the last to feature all 4 major Greek club (AEK Athens, Olympiacos, Panathinaikos and PAOK).

PES 2013 QUOTES

“

VIVA PES

”

-KONAMI

PRO EVOLUTION SOCCER 2014

PES 2014 was an incredible milestone for KONAMI, which unfortunately wasn't quite embraced by the community. PES 2014 was the last PES edition to be published on Sony PlayStation™ 2 and PSP. Firstly-introducing Kojima's Fox Engine and Havok as physics engine, PES 2014 is truly a hit. The game reception was quite good, although the game really lacked many features...

FACTS:

• PES 2014 included UEFA Europa League as an independent game mode (not only available within Master League and Become a Legend) for the first time.
• PES 2014 made an agreement with the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and started including AFC Champions League. It also included the Argentine Primera División and the Chilean Campeonato Nacional with full licenses.
• Jon Champion (England) and Jim Beglin (Ireland) provide the English commentary, while Jon Kabira, Tsuyoshi Kitazawa and Hiroshi Nanami provide the Japanese commentary. MENA beINSports network analyst, Raouf Ben Khlif from Tunisia was firstly introduced, accompanying the AFC Champions League, while Mario Closs and Fernando Niembro provided the Argentinian Castellano commentary and Fox Sports Latinoamérica commentators Fernando Solabarrieta and Patricio Yáñez provided the Chilean Castellano commentary, accompanying Argentine and Chilean Primera División respectively.
• Sadly, due to game engine upgrade, rain was not included within the game, making clear sky the only option available.
• Stadium Editor and La Liga stadiums (previously included on PES 2013) were not included, due to license restriction.
• The European cover art features the "UEFA Champions League Arena", the iconic stadium shown in every classic UCL TV advertisement. The Japanese cover features the Japan national team. The version for the Rest of the World features renovated "KONAMI Stadium", a generic stadium included ingame.
• Kit logos were enhanced by adding the feature of including logos in front, back, sleeves, shorts and socks, thus enabling PES patchers with a new hobby: kit part making.
• Face scanning was completely discarded with face making being totally rebuilt.
• PES 2014 was the last to include clubs from Scotland (Celtic Glasgow and Motherwell).
• PES 2014 was the first to introduce Maccabi Tel Aviv from Israel and Legia Warsaw from Poland.

PRO EVOLUTION SOCCER 2015

PES 2015 was completely revamped, after the complaints on PES 2014. As a new era game, PES 2015 has an innovative menu with newly introduced "myClub" mode, replacing old "Master League Online". PES 2015 was the first in the series to add a 11v11 online mode, which was a real hit! The servers were occasionally under maintenance, the edit mode consisted of new features (home stadium details, fan banners, rivals, club team commentary name, manager name and picture) and the initial letter of the first name of the players was added right behind their surname. PES 2015 was the last to include fake player names that resembled their real ones and the first ever which didn't include Division II, formerly known as "WE League". Master League and Become a Legend had various additions that made them easier to enjoy. PES 2015 had not included the firstly introduced in PES 2014 Chilean Primera División and was the first to include Copa Sudamericana and Recopa Sudamericana.

FACTS:

• PES 2015 was the last to feature Greece national team with licensed kit.
• AEL Limassol (Cyprus), Aalborg BK (Denmark), BATE Barysaw (Belarus), Partizan Belgrade (Serbia), Grasshopper Club Zürich (Switzerland), Ludogorets Razgrad (Bulgaria), NK Maribor (Slovenia), Qarabağ FK (Azerbaijan) and Slovan Bratislava (Slovakia) were firstly introduced. Note that Partizan was included in PES 4 with every element unlicensed (name, emblem, kit and players) as "Baldivan".
• PES 2015 was the last to introduce all the clubs above (except for Partizan and Qarabağ).
• PES 2015 was the last to include Montenegro and Finland national team. They were replaced in PES 2016 (and remained as well in PES 2017) by Albania and Iceland national team respectively.
• The cover art featured Bayern Munich's star, Mario Götze.

PRO EVOLUTION SOCCER 2016

PES 2016 was a better version of PES 2015, as many people suggest. Almost same gameplay, with new things to do (e.g. celebration control, dynamic weather, reborn Master League, a myClub demo free-to-play etc.) and many other additions as well. The player faces (their form being firstly introduced in PES 2014) were altered, as well as the skills. New goal celebrations were added (e.g. Totti iPhone selfie etc.), making the experience even greater. The goal replays were updated, temporarily though, since PES 2017 has altered some aspects of the replays, making them even more realistic. PES 2016 was a classic piece and, unfortunately, the last to include South American international competitions (Copa Libertadores, Copa Sudamericana and Recopa Sudamericana).

FACTS:

• Becamex Bình Dương (Vietnam), Borussia Mönchengladbach (Germany), VfL Wolfsburg (Germany), KAA Gent (Belgium) were firstly introduced. Note that both German clubs re-appeared in the series prior to PES 2016, but without (name-emblem-kit) license, as "Fohlen" and "Autostadt" respectively.
• PES 2016 was the last to introduce KAA Gent from Belgium, as well as Borussia M'gladbach and Wolfsburg.
• PES 2016 was not the first to include Italian lower league clubs in "Other Europe", as some may suggest. PES 6 had included Juventus in "Other Leagues A", since they were relegated to Serie B. 2015-16 season had a troubled Serie B beginning, with the clubs participating being constantly changed by the Italian Football Federation (FIGC). The game included the following 3 clubs from Serie B; Ascoli, Brescia and Virtus Entella. Teramo and Catania are included, although they were forced to Lega Pro.
• PES 2016 was the first to feature completely unlicensed Catania, as well as generic Italian club "Ganzoraccio" as a Serie B club.
• PES 2016 was the last to feature licensed Liga Española, Segunda División, Manchester United (England), many Spanish clubs (including Real Madrid, with license until PES 4, and Athletic Bilbao, first time), Hellas Verona (Italy), Carpi (Italy), Frosinone (Italy).
• PES 2016 was the first in the series to completely alter the fake names. Now, the names (form; I. SURNAME, where "I" stands for the initial letter of the name) have different forms and do not resemble the real name of the player. For instance, the surnames "BETT", "BEGOVIC" and "WATT" can be found in Iran national team. Many PES players are opposed to Konami's decision.
• The global cover star was Neymar wearing Brazil's kit. The European cover also featured Juventus Spanish star, Álvaro Morata.
• PES 2016 was the first to introduced licensed UEFA Euro mode. Via Data Pack Update, many kits were updated and Albania (debut), Iceland (debut), Northern Ireland, Slovakia, Turkey, Ukraine, Wales, originally unlicensed, were now fully licensed teams. Belgium, Switzerland, Ireland and the other Euro contestants had fake kits that resembled the actual kits.
• Greece national team loses the kit license for the first time since PES 2008, when firstly introduced with kit license.
• PES 2016 was re-developed for new-gen consoles (PlayStation®4™ and XBOX®ONE™), featuring UEFA Euro mode and Welsh super-star, Gareth Bale, on the cover.
• PES 2016 (UEFA Euro release for PlayStation®4™ and XBOX®ONE™) was the first video game to include full-cover and game companion in Welsh language.

PRO EVOLUTION SOCCER 2017

PES 2017 is a true masterpiece when referring to PES series. The latest addition (as of 2016) in the PES family has many improvements, which are; Real Touch (better ball control), Precise Pass (more realistic passing), Goalkeeping (enhanced goalkeepers with new animations), Advanced Instructions (e.g. Barcelona's Tiki-Taka), Total Team Control (new strategies when playing), Corner Kick Control (set piece strategies), Adaptive AI (AI adapting to your style of play), Authentic Visuals (improved graphics in every aspect), Natural Player Movement (new parameters).

myClub mode has a new scouting addition, which helps with the player selling and signing, it also provides match analysis and new tutorials.

Master League mode has seen significant changes in the negotiation system, there are more team roles, a better team growth and real life kick-off times!

There is also Match Analysis provided for VS mode matches! The referees are improved this year, new stadiums (generic and licensed) are popping up, the live update system is reborn, the Game Plan presentation is upgraded and the controller vibration is more awesome. For the first time, edit data sharing is available on PlayStation 4.

On Edit mode, Strip Editing has never been so cool! Now kit markings can be adjusted however the user likes, the collar number has increased from 4 to 13 and the club's Base Color is different from the Team Color; the first affects the kit coloring, the other one affects the radar, fan clothing and banners. More cities have been introduced (referring to Commentary City Name), Home Stadium Image is introduced on PS4, while Home Stadium set up is enhanced with new elements. Youth Player editing has returned (debuting in PES 2013), while Manager Transfer can now be achieved (seen in PESM).

FACTS:

• PES 2017 is the first edition to feature an unlicensed International Club Competition from Latin America and the first since PES 2011 without a licensed one.
• PES 2017 is the first edition since PES 2010 that features licensed Liverpool FC and Anfield (will be added via Data Pack Update).
• PES 2017 is the first to include licensed Borussia Dortmund (has appeared before without license) and Signal Iduna Park (also has appeared unlicensed in previous games).
• New stadium entrances for Camp Nou (FC Barcelona) and Anfield (Liverpool FC) have been introduced, with each club's anthem being played when entering. Every stadium has now outside-of-the-stadium view before entering the game (loading screen).
• PES 2017 is the first since PES 2008 to include unlicensed Manchester United, the first ever to introduced unlicensed Juventus and Hellas Verona from Italy, and several Spanish clubs (first time since PES 3: Real Madrid, Celta de Vigo, Deportivo La Coruña. First time without license: Deportivo Alavés, Athletic Club Bilbao, Eibar, UD Las Palmas, Leganés and more...
• Favorite club option, firstly introduced in PES 2014, is now abolished. The main menu is neutral and the team selection is now available in the Skill Training mode.
• Player editing is now easier. A focus circle appears when editing the face, while the graphics are now more realistic than ever!
• The traditional player rotation system has been altered. Now, the user has to use the right analog stick of the controller to rotate the player, while the old buttons (L2 and R2 on PS3 and PS4, LT and RT on XBOX 360 and XBOX ONE & "Z" and "C" on keyboard) are now used to zoom in and out. This also goes for the kits.
• PES 2017 is the first PES edition since PES 2010 to feature the generic Other European Clubs (some of them are former WE League members) in the section with the real ones, as well as the generic Other South American Clubs.
• Although England was licensed in PES 2016 (UEFA Euro DLC), PES 2017 features England without a kit license.
• PES 2017 is the first to introduce fully unlicensed: Hungary, Poland, Russia, Cameroon.
• Albania, firstly introduced in PES 2016 (licensed with UEFA Euro DLC) got to keep the license, as well as Croatia. Czech Republic, Iceland, Northern Ireland, Turkey, Ukraine and Wales lost their licenses.
• PES 2017 is the first to include Venezuela with licensed names. Ecuador, also with licensed names, had licensed names back in PES 5 era.
• PES 2017 is the first PES edition since PES 2013 where the player can edit the ML New Players. They are now fully customizable and there's also an Asian ML New Player pack.
• PES 2017 is the first PES edition where the free agents that occur from Data Pack Updates are now stored in Free Agents section, rather than being discarded. This makes team editing a lot easier...
• The following games (PES 2018,2019,2020) feature the team spirit system, that allows to create a good team and therefore play even better while you win more matches. In this editions the manager has to know how to increase Team Spirit so his players can create the perfect plays while in the field.