PES is ‘struggling’, says EA boss

PES is ‘struggling’, says EA boss
Wesley Yin-Poole Updated on by

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FIFA’s arch virtual football rival PES is “struggling”, EA reckons.

Why? According to EA UK boss Keith Ramsdale, it’s because 2010 “is very much a FIFA and Call of Duty year”.

Konami shipped more than three million copies of PES 2010 to retail before the game’s launch on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.

Late last month ChartTrack reported that PES 2010 entered the All Formats All Prices video game chart at No.1, although it sold 39 per cent fewer copies than PES 2009 during its debut week. We gave the game a disappointing 7/10 in our review.

After the game’s release, Konami general manager Peter Stone told MCV the Japanese publisher was delighted by the early success of PES 2010, and pointed to improvements made to the title over last year’s effort as the reason for its strong sales.

Ramsdale, however, had this to say: “FIFA, the quality bar, again unbelievable. 91 per cent Metacritic on the two next-gen formats. 1.7 million units sold the first weekend in Europe. Extraordinary numbers.

“We’ve seen PES come. PES is struggling like most other non-mainstream franchises. This is very much a FIFA and Call of Duty year. There is quality product out there that is failing in the marketplace that at any other time would perform very well. So it’s a tough place, but FIFA is a beneficiary of that, and we’re really pleased with how FIFA’s coming along.”

Is PES struggling? Is 2010 a FIFA and CoD year? Let us know in the comments section below.