Last year Konami introduced to Pro Evolution Soccer 2017 some of the best footballers of all time that, if you were lucky enough and contacted the right virtual agent, would join your MyClub custom team. Due to its premium partnership with the game makers, most of those classic players were FC Barcelona players of old, but other partner teams (such as Liverpool FC) also got a few representatives.
But with PES 2018, even if partner club "Legends" will return, Konami is taking the next step in order to get exclusive deals with more historic players, no matter what jersey they wore back in the day. Here's how Adam Bhatti explained it to Gamereactor at E3:
"We've just announced Diego Maradona, which isn't a surprise, because we had him last year," recalls PES global product & brand manager. "We did have over 30 Legends last year through our partnerships, but we chose to announce him because this deal is a direct deal with the player. So we've done quite a few Legend players which have just been based on partnerships. The reason why we focused on him is just to make sure people are aware that we are going to go out now, and we are going to sign Legend players individually, away from partnerships."
"If you do see us going around signing partnerships - which you will - for PES 2018," continues Bhatti, "we're not going to lock ourselves to those Legend players, but also excitingly we do want to say that we are going to sign some of the biggest Legend players ever to play the game. And we are trying our best making sure that when we do announce them, that'll only be announced for PES".
After a legal dispute for image rights usage, Maradona recently agreed to work with Konami in several ways until 2020, but "El Pelusa" was also announced as an Icon for FIFA 18 at E3, hence Bhatti teasing exclusive deals still to come.
Which new Legends would you like to see on PES 2018? Play the full interview below:
