Juventus PES deal "was a big hit for our competitor"

Konami is giving PES a bit of a shakeup this year, as it's being rebranded to eFootball PES 2020, and has just struck a deal with UEFA to become the official game of Euro 2020 next year, which is what we talked about with EU PES Brand Manager Lennart Bobzien at Gamescom in Cologne.

"With the Euro 2020 license, first of all the competition itself will be exclusively featured in the game, and on top of that, thanks to this new deal, new agreement, we also managed to secure additional national football associations," he explained. "So far we can talk about more than 50 national football associations coming to the game, which is already a huge success for us."

Speaking of deals being made, earlier this year PES caught headlines by securing an agreement with Italian titans Juventus which means that they're the only game featuring the team. With FIFA not getting to represent them (instead opting for an alternative - Piemonte Calcio), Bobzien recognises how much of an achievement this is:

"I think once we announced the exclusive partnership with Juventus, loads of media, they went out with that news, since this is something no-one really expected. I know there were rumours going around that we secured Juventus, but I think no-one expected from us to secure them exclusive, which for us is an amazing achievement. And literally on the same day when you looked at social media, different various media, they went out with the news where they said this is a big thing. It was a big hit for our competitor, and that for us is just great to see."

How big a hit is it for FIFA?