Konami Brings Asian Champions League Teams to Pro Evolution Soccer 2014, Courting Asian Gamers?

When it comes to soccer¹, there’s one brand global video gamers prefer: FIFA. Despite being the product of America’s two-time “Worst Company Ever” winner EA, FIFA is beloved by fans both because it’s fun to play and because it includes tons of licensed teams from all the most popular soccer leagues around the world.

But Konami’s second-place Pro Evolution Soccer (PES, also called Winning Eleven in Japan) may have finally found a gap it can use to challenge FIFA’s dominance, especially in Asia: the Asian leagues. Konami announced on Monday that it has finalized a deal with the Asian Champions’ League that will see Asia’s top club teams coming to the game for the first time ever in PES 2014. And while FIFA does have teams from Korea’s K-League and Australia’s A-League, it doesn’t have any club teams from other Asian countries, so Konami’s game will be the first to offer those teams to players.

Chinese soccer fans, for example, will be able to play as China’s top club teams Guangzhou Hengda, Jiangsu Shuntian, Guizhou Renhe, and Beijing Guoan for the first time ever in a major soccer game. And Konami is reportedly in negotiations to bring the entirety of China’s Super League, Japan’s J League, and Thailand’s Premier League into the game as well.

Although the biggest European clubs have huge followings in Asia, Konami’s inclusion of Asian fans’ hometown clubs could be a way of helping it scoop up some of FIFA’s market share across the region. No team licensing can make up for a bad game, of course, and it remains to be seen whether PES 2014 will be able to compete with FIFA 14 on that front. But if the games are comparable in other ways, the pull of being able to play as the hometown heroes may be enough to bring some Asian fans over to PES.

In China, it already appears some fans are excited about the prospect of playing as Chinese Super League teams. The comments section on this article about the new PES 2014 seems to have descended quickly into banter and cursing, with fans talking about things like whether games played in Beijing Guoan’s home at Worker’s Stadium will feature the sounds of Guoan fans’ legendary foul-mouthed chants. If Konami can capitalize on that interest, it may just have found a way to challenge the dominance of FIFA in the world’s most populous continent.

1. Yes, I called it soccer and not football, because that’s what the game was originally called. Watch this newsreel clip of Liverpool FC from 1935 if you don’t believe me. Football used to refer to any game played on foot, with the most popular games being Association Football (the sport we now know as soccer) and Rugby Football. The name “association football” was later shortened to assoccer and then just soccer in the colloquial language of the time in the UK.