"Aggressive" EA licensing leads to PES 2014 cuts; Rain also missing

Konami has confirmed a couple of features that won’t make it into the extremely promising looking PES 2014.

Chief amongst them is the omission of rain.

Rain has not been implemented for 2014 as we had to overhaul the whole game and build it from scratch,” a memo posted by PES community manager Adam Bhatti on the Winning Eleven blog confirmed.

While implementing rainy weather itself is fairly feasible, we need to think through of how its effect shows through in gameplay. This includes the pitch becoming slippery, ball bouncing, some elements to make the team used to that climate somewhat more power in terms of balance.

We are going to try further this year to get the elements sorted and have them implemented for 2015.”

Also missing will be all Spanish Stadiums, several Spanish teams.

EA have been extremely aggressive with signing deals with clubs and leagues this year, and it has meant we can’t implement major European stadiums, including NO Spanish stadiums,” Bhatti added. People were getting worried when they announced exclusive deals with Spanish teams. Well it turned out it meant we couldn’t implement their stadium, amongst others.

This news came pretty late to us. Which is where a time issue came in, meaning we didn’t have time to rebuild other stadiums to replace them. PES 2014 will ship with roughly 20 stadiums.

Adding to the licensing woe, Stadium Editor has been removed. This, personally, is the biggest hit. I can’t go into it, but this in particular has made the team realise more than ever about acquiring licensing, and we’re determined to fight back in this regard next year. If things are removed from edit mode because of licensing each year, it would rip out the soul of PES, and we must not let that happen.

Finally, and less impacting, teams in Other European League has seen a slight drop in numbers across certain countries. Again (hate to keep saying it) license lockout. Nothing too major, but I’m awaiting final team lists from teams qualifying for Europe before we finalise it.”

Konami has at least confirmed that the PES 2014 editing mode has been expanded over previous versions, meaning those with a flexible attitude toward copyright law can update their game to better reflect real-world football.

None of the above should detract from the fact that PES 2014 is being touted by an increasing number of people as an actual, real return to form for the series. The use of the Fox engine has given the title an incredible air of authenticity. It looks like there could be a genuine quality fight in the football game market this year.

UPDATE:Adam Bhatti has contacted MCV to clarify that PES 2014 hasthe La Liga BBVA license and will in fact contain all the Spanish teams.