Games - Pro Evolution Soccer

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	Games - Pro Evolution Soccer

Pro Evolution Soccer (also known as Winning Eleven
) is a football computer and video game series developed by Konami (KCET) and is one of the most popular sports franchises of all time.

History and overview

Originally a PlayStation spin-off from Konami's International Superstar Soccer
for the SNES, the first game in the series released outside Japan, ISS Pro (based on Winning Eleven) was released in 1997, followed by ISS Pro 98 in 1998, ISS Pro Evolution in 1999 and ISS Pro Evolution 2 in 2000.

In the same year, Japanese PlayStation 2 owners saw Winning Eleven 5 released, the first in the series for the new Sony Console, and the definite split between PES and ISS games was done with the release of Pro Evolution Soccer in Europe, released as ESPN MLS Extratime in North America.

The final assault on EA Sports' FIFA Series crown was with the 2002 top-selling title Pro Evolution Soccer 2, based on Winning Eleven 6. For the first time, a Winning Eleven title was also released in North America, dropping the previous ESPN and MLS licenses.

Present status

Although the series dominated the PlayStation 2 scene (over competitors FIFA and This Is Football
), it was not released on other platforms, with the exception of Winning Eleven 6: Final Evolution (Nintendo GameCube). When Winning Eleven 7 was released, Konami announced that the upcoming Pro Evolution Soccer 3 was also set to be released on Personal computers, featuring Italian superstar referee Pierluigi Collina on the cover.The game fixed most parts of the previous game that needing tweaking.

The PC version, however, required top-quality hardware, which hampered sales in comparison with the still low-end FIFA series, and lacked on-line game modes, which would appear on the 2004 installement, Winning Eleven 8/Pro Evolution Soccer 4. The game didn't not improve greatly over PES3, but focus on better dribble control and adds three licensed leagues (Italy, Netherlands and Spain).

The latest version, Pro Evolution Soccer 5
, was released in October 2005 on PlayStation 2, Xbox and PC. This was followed shortly by the release of the PSP version, a debut for Sony's portable system. It quickly became the fastest selling football game in the UK. Again, the changes were focused on gameplay with a slower but more realistic game pace.

Although the series is held in high acclaim by the gaming press and sells well, it has often had numerous criticisms. The game is considered to have a very steep learning curve, and licenses have been acquired extremely slowly (many players and teams lack real names, not unlike early-1990s games such as Sensible Soccer
). However, later games have begun to feature an increasing number of licensed teams.

There is always much confusion between the Japanese Winning Eleven series and the European Pro Evolution Soccer titles. Ultimately, there are minor changes in the two versions, although slight alterations are done for the European release.

Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo and the series' producer Shingo "Seabass" Takatsuka are now focusing their efforts on the next generation of game systems, the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360 to further enhance Pro Evolution Soccer and Winning Eleven.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Pro Evolution Soccer ]

Games - Pro Evolution Soccer

History and overview

Present status

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