Konami Explains Why PES 2020 Changed Name To "EFootball"

When Konami revealed PES 2020, many fans noticed the game had a new naming convention. Gone was the full Pro Evolution Soccer title, to be replaced by the new eFootball moniker. Now, Konami has discussed its reasons for changing the series' name.

"The full product name moving forward will be "eFootball: PES," the franchise's European brand manager, Lennart Bobzien, told GameSpot. "For this year we've announced eFootball PES 2020. We want to put a bigger focus on esports moving forward. In the past we've already shown [this] by having competitions such as PES League and eFootball Pro, the professional club competition. Moving forward, there will be bigger esports competitions coming up. We simply thought that by including it in the product naming, we're making a statement and showing our community of fans, but also the wider audience, that esports will play a very big part moving forward.

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"Talking about Pro Evolution Soccer--in Europe, it was always a tricky one, and when we discussed this repositioning we thought, let's call it football, it's a European market [so] we want to have football. We still keep PES in the product name since we feel that's still part of the heritage and we want to keep it in there. Therefore, the combination will be eFootball: PES."

Konami announced just recently that Manchester United will be officially licensed in this year's game, with Scott McTominay a cover star in some regions. The club's Old Trafford stadium will be fully scanned into the game, along with the entire first team squad.

PES 2020 launches for PS4, Xbox One, and PC on September 10. A demo version, which includes online and offline match types as well as the game's edit mode, will launch on July 30. Stay tuned to GameSpot for a full PES 2020 gameplay preview.