FC Barcelona announced on Tuesday a partnership with Konami and eFootball.Pro to field a team in Pro Evolution Soccer 2018.
KONAMI is the creator of PES, which competes annually against FIFA for the soccer/football player base. eFootball.Pro is an esports company founded by Barca defender Gerard Pique. FC Barcelona is continuing the trend of traditional sports franchises getting involved in esports.
According to FC Barcelona, the club will be competing against other European teams that will be announced shortly. Like FC Barcelona, its competitors will likely be just starting their own esports initiatives. That’s because many of the more established clubs with esports programs – Paris Saint-Germain, Ajax and Manchester City, to name a few – are already committed to FIFA.
Having two games competing for market share in the same space is rare in traditional sports games. Typically one franchise dominates the market like Madden NFL and NBA 2K.
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Konami is a big developer but is not known for esports. In this endeavor, it will be competing against EA and the companies expansive sponsorships. Still, getting one of the most popular sporting brands in the world in FC Barcelona is a good first step.
“As a player, I’m excited that my club has decided to enter eSports and joins this innovative project that we are preparing together with KONAMI,” Pique said in a statement. “Barça will be able to contribute their values to the competition and I am sure they will be a great rival for the rest of the teams. For our part, from eFootball.Pro, we join the Club in this new adventure in the digital world and we will guide them so that they can make their fans feel as they do with the rest of their sports.”
EA got to this space first so KONAMI will have an uphill battle in gaining audience and sponsors. In addition to the teams above, FIFA has partnerships with ESL and Dreamhack, the largest independent tournament organizers in esports. It’s unlikely these tournaments will hold two separate tournaments for soccer/football games which could leave PES on the outside looking in.