UEFA and Konami had a 10 year partnership allowing Konami to officially use the UEFA Champions League license for the annual PES gaming franchise. Well now it looks like their exclusive partnership is coming to an end which might be good news for EA Sports and its FIFA franchise heading into the future.
UEFA posted more official details of the end of the partnership over on its official website. They posted the following message: “The 2018 UEFA Champions League final in Kyiv will mark the end of a very successful and fruitful 10-year partnership between Konami and the UEFA Champions League.
The UEFA Champions League offered the perfect media and activation platform for Konami and has been a key feature within its world-renowned Pro Evolution Soccer video game.”
UEFA has been the only major official license that EA Sports failed to acquire for the FIFA franchise, so this could be a big thing if Konami is backing out. That said, Konami and EA could share the license if UEFA agrees to both gaming publishers using them in their respective annual video game franchises.
We’ll just have to wait and see what happens in the future in regards to this relationship ending. Getting the UEFA license won’t be cheap so EA Sports will have to bid a lot of money to acquire it for the FIFA series.
