PES 2012 release date announced

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 28 July, 2011

Kick off in October.

PES 2012 launches on 14th October, Konami has announced.

The Japanese company described the title as the "most ambitious and advanced football game ever".

It goes live on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

PES holds the official license to the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League and UEFA Super Cup. In PES 2012, referees and their assistants sport official UEFA Champions League uniforms.

"PES 2012 is a massive advance for the football genre, truly the most ambitious and advanced football game ever," said Jon Murphy, European PES Team Leader.

"The additions we have made in terms of Teammate Control, Active AI and Off the Ball Control and elevate the level of play to new heights. No other game allows users so much control over their team, and PES 2012 ensures that the days of gaps in defence and shouting at teammates to make a run are long gone.

"This is a very exciting time to be a PES fan, and we are delighted that we can set a firm date for football fans to mark in their calendars."

Release dates for the PSP, PS2 and Wii versions will be announced shortly, Konami said.

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (33) Latest comment 10 months ago

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  • sfp_noodle #1 10 months ago

    The Japanese company described the title as the "most ambitious and advanced football game ever".

    Change the record Konami.

  • UkHardcore23 #2 10 months ago

    Poor reporting tbh, The UK gets it on the 14th of Oct but mainland Europe get's it on the 29th of Sept!!!

  • Feanor #3 10 months ago

    Bring back all the great stuff you cut out from the PES 5 & 6 era and maybe I'll consider buying it.

  • DarthKebab #4 10 months ago

    Optimistic about this years game, last years was a very decent effort given the chance to learn it.

  • freedumb #5 10 months ago

    Eddie Mink, the only absolute twaddle is that people seem to think the sun shines out of FIFA's backside and it is the perfect football game with no flaws whatsoever. Take away the gloss and the animations, for those who play real football you can clearly see which is the more realistic and tactical football game.

    Darthkebab you're right. Once you learn and master PES 2011 with extended play, you'll realize how amazing it is. Not just 5 minutes of the demo and thinking its crap.
    Edited by freedumb at 28/07/11 @ 14:52

  • DarthKebab #6 10 months ago

    Thats the thing as well, people approach it now with the "I hope this is still crap" attitude, back in its heyday it was very difficult to learn but people at least gave it a chance then.

  • evild_edd #7 10 months ago

    I tried FIFA 10 and, despite many hours of play, it left me cold. Wouldn't mind a new footy title (I refuse to get one every year), and could be up for a return to the PES series.

    FIFA has all the extra fluff, but when it comes to the core gameplay I still believe PES has the edge (or did back in its PS2 days, before they sodded it up).

    One question: will it have the ability to save replays. A strange ommission from FIFA 10 and recent footy titles. I love reliving classic goals/flukes/weird moments, and not being able to save replays to console is really irritating!

  • vijay_UK #8 10 months ago

    @Feanor:

    I'd add to PES5 & PES6, the brilliant fun that were PES3 and PES4 as well. Those were awesome days, it all started going to hell from PES2007 onwards and the franchise shows no sign of letting up. No sale from me.

  • LetsGoFlames #9 10 months ago

    @vijay_UK

    I suprised you have the powers to discern how good a game is without ever playing it or the demo. I should applaud you for that because i wish i had that skill. However,i don't but what i have heard from those who have had a chance to play the game is that it is good FUN and Challenging game. That makes me interested enough to try the game. Sorry, no offence but FIfa has BAD gameplay. If you take away the animations, the gameplay is still as bad if not worse than FIFA on the PS2. Sorry but i just can't play a game where people float on grass.

  • freedumb #10 10 months ago

    @EddieMink, he may overdo it at times, but in recent times I think the games have backed up his words, despite all the PR guff that goers with it :p

    @vijay
    See, that's exactly the kind of attitude PES is battling against. People giving up on the series before they've even played it :/ Konami haven't forgotten suddenly how to make a good football game. They are the pioneers. If you approach the games with the attitude of: 'What is Konami trying to achieve, how can I learn the game, master it' then you will enjoy them much more and see them for what they are; tactical and realistic football games.

    For example people champion FIFA, but in all these years they still haven't beaten PES in areas such as player individuality or tactical gameplan options which have a discernible effect on the pitch, both of which are crucial areas!

    Have you even played PES 2010 and 2011? Admittedly PES 2008 was turd, but you could see as far back in 2009 they started to turn it around again (despite the lack of polish and rigid animations) with the introduction of heavier weighted ball physics and d-pad contextual dribbling, developed and refined through the later versions; something which FIFA is now claiming to be an innovation in their 'Trinity' for this year.
    Edited by freedumb at 28/07/11 @ 14:54

  • Feanor #11 10 months ago

    @vijay_UK

    I never played PES 3, but PES 4 was great. Volleys were so hard, though.

  • sfp_noodle #12 10 months ago

    @LetsGoFlames

    The most ironic thing about your post that Fifa has "bad gameplay" is that Konami have started to copy everything they can from Fifa. Power gauges on short passes? Yup, Fifa did that first. Holding a trigger and pushing the stick to do tricks? Yup, Fifa did that first. Off the ball control? Fifa did that and dropped it since it just complicates things too much. Oh, and they did it first.

    I was a massive PES fan back in the PS2 days. PES 3 is still my all-time favourite as it brought the biggest changes in the series with realistic player running animations, manual transfers of players between clubs, unique free kick stances and genuine "pure football." Up until PES 6 everything was dandy although PES 5 was probably the game where Konami got lazy. PES 6 always felt like a patched up version of PES 5 to me, which is no bad thing when you consider PES 5 was the definitive football game for me.

    So yes, massive fan back in the glory days, but never resorted to fanboy levels of admiration because something better always comes along. EA upped their game with Fifa big time and after the train wreck that was PES 2008 I never looked back. Fifa 09 was excellent, I didn't enjoy Fifa 10 because of the stupid defending but Fifa 11 fixed that. Yeah Fifa has problems, but you guys talk like PES is perfect like it once was. They wouldn't conitnuously tell us how advanced the current version is if last year's wasn't outdated.

    PES blew it this gen and whilst I admit last year's effort brought back some memories of the good old days it isn't enough anymore. Konami have been trying so hard on returning the series to it's roots that they've been left behind in almost every other aspect. It reminds me of Gran Turismo 5 in a way. Still a good game at it's core, but horribly outdated in almost everything else. Same with the online. If your a FOOTBALL fan you'll appreciate that both games have flaws. PES just has more of them and your kidding yourself if you say that isn't true.

  • steagz #13 10 months ago

    i would of thought it would of made more sense to get this out before fifa 12

  • Ant1975 #14 10 months ago

    Never understood the Pes love in on this gen. Each year the same band of tired old fanboys rear their heads and proclaim that Pes is back, its the real football game, yadda yadda, blah blah, only for it to end in the bargain bin or for some terrible trade in prices after a month.

    It completely astounds me that Fifa gets the kicking it gets, its far superior in every aspect currently to Pes. The animations, the fluidity, the 360 degree dribbling, the graphics, the licenses, you watch a game of fifa and play it on manual, its an astounding achievement to see such a fluid representation of football. Its not perfect but it's certainly worth the price and afar cry from its lame previous incarnations several years back. And before anyone bangs on ive been playing footy games since the days of Atari, and in fact edited the old Ps2 versions of Winning Eleven, i even bought an imported console so i could get the game early.

    So excuse me if i don't go all wet at Jon Murphys claim, its the same every year.

  • LetsGoFlames #15 10 months ago

    @sfp_noodle

    You are definitely smoking air.Please do not make noise to me about being a fanboy why? Guess what, i was a FIFA fanboy till 2 years ago with FIFA 10. EA had something good going with FIFA 09 an then they turned out this arcade game called FIFA 10 where i actually scored 15 goals in a game on a regular basis. While Pes has copied several aspects from FIFA, Fifa have done the same as well. Where do you think they got Pro Player intelligence, or their new Defending system this year, or their new pitch cam or their new menu idea or their MM ideas, i could go on forever but that is not the point.

    When i say BAD GAMEPLAY, i mean BAD AI. Bad artificial intelligence. The most annoying thing is when your defense splits like the RED Sea so that the opponent can score a goal. The AI is horrible. Another problem is the players floating on the grass. I hate any game that doesn't have foot planting technology. It is so stupid in FIfa 10 and 11 and 12 how players can move like they cant in real life. They constantly defy the laws of physics in that game. If you try some of the movements at the speed they do it, you will break a bone.

  • steagz #16 10 months ago

    fifa 11 its problems

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsAgdwLwAdg

  • LetsGoFlames #17 10 months ago

    @Ant1975

    i quote you "The animations, the fluidity, the 360 degree dribbling, the graphics, the licenses, you watch a game of fifa and play it on manual, its an astounding achievement to see such a fluid representation of football. "

    This is where you and i differ in opinion. Look at the things that you are looking for in a football game. You are looking at Superficial aspects that don't determine how the game of football is played. Graphics, animations, 360 dribbling, licences. What kind of NONSENSE is that? Yes those things make a football game more believeable but they are not the fundamentals of football. When i say fundamentals of football, I mean AI. How do the players play on the field compared to their real life counterparts and does the game i am playing represent this accurately.

    When i look at a football game, The first thing i look at is AI. How do they defend and how do they attack? Does it make sense. I then look at player personalities. Do the players play like they do in real life? Then i look at game modes. Do the game modes provided attempt to bring me a deep experience that i can only experience if i was a player? Then i look at graphics and PES has better graphics than Fifa. The one thing i hate is Disney Pixar graphics. Fifa has cartoony graphics. Then i look at Animations. Fifa has better animations but they lack foot planting which directly impacts the way the game plays. Any game without footplanting is automatically unrealistic. It doesn't matter because it allows the devs to boost the computer by giving them advantages and not programming better Ai. Then i look at commentary. Fifa wins. Then i look at licences. To me, they are tied because i don't need the official exact licences. Pes allows me to create teams and leagues to a more accurate detail than fifa's official licences so it doesn't bother me.

  • geeza2020 #18 10 months ago

    we need a waaaaaahmbulance, stat!

  • sfp_noodle #19 10 months ago

    @LetsGoFlames

    I stopped reading after you said:- "I actually scored 15 goals in a game on a regular basis."

    All that tells me is that you played Fifa on Amateur settings every.single.time.

  • HandOfBeadle #20 10 months ago

    LetsGoFlames - was just about to post a reply to Ant but realised it was the same as your 2nd paragraph. FIFA gets a kicking from the hardcore because it caters to those who would list cosmetic qualities like animations or graphics when trying to prove something is a stunning representation of football.

    FIFA just doesn't do anything for people who want the depth that player individuality and tactical flexibility provide.
    Edited by HandOfBeadle at 28/07/11 @ 15:48

  • LetsGoFlames #21 10 months ago

    @spf_noodle

    Its not my fault you suck at the game. If you played fifa 10, you would know that all you had to do was chip the keeper. It was that easy. One you have Ibra as your CF, no one can push him off the ball. Game Set Match. Did you even play fifa 10? Just sounds to me like your spewing a whole lot of B.S. out of your corn hole.

  • markb1166 #22 10 months ago

    Based on gameplay PES destroys Fifa. I own both and only use Fifa to play with friends which is the only time its any fun to me. PES all the way.

  • freedumb #23 10 months ago

    sfp noodle, I think Konami are entitled to pick up on the good things that FIFA has included, after YEARS of FIFA pilfering their ideas. Basically a lot of what you now see in FIFA was already done in pes, even simple things like the control system, L1 one twos, triple tap crossing, finesse shot modifier etc. PES has been copied by FIFA for a long time, so its a bit rich to accuse Konami of doing the same!

    Even this year FIFA are talking about including tactical dribbling, Remember the R2 button from the PS days of PES? And the development of the d-pad contextual dribbling system from PES 2009 to today's versions. PES is the one actually leading, FIFA following, while admittedly including some good ideas itself as well that Konami are entitled to use as payback for all of their ideas that have crossed over to FIFA.
    Edited by freedumb at 28/07/11 @ 17:49

  • immateriaux #24 10 months ago

    The monocular myopia of PES fanbois is a wonder to behold sometimes. if ever there was a clear case of fan insecurity, and a driven need to invent stuff about a rival game, this is it.

  • Rodchenko #25 10 months ago

    Once you learn and master PES 2011 with extended play, you'll realize how amazing it is. Not just 5 minutes of the demo and thinking its crap.

    I gave last year's game about 100 matches and I still thought it was crap. Robotic, on-rails, sluggish, scripted, full of dumb teammate AI and overall annoying as hell. Sorry. Sold it along with FIFA which was crap too, but for it's own reasons.

    I will be getting both again, hoping that either (or both) can deliver this time around. But I am increasingly tired of reading the same PES-fanboy drivel every year: "you need to master it. you need to practice it. It's for the real fans. It only shows its jewels after extended play." Blah, blah, blah.

    In my opinion the very opposite is true: we all know how football plays, how passes, dribblings, shooting, tackling, speed and weight of the ball should feel. It's no rocket science. If it doesn't klick within the first 30 minutes or remains to feel awkward, sluggish, robotic or too heavy afterwards, then it IS probably shit and it will remain shit even after game number 423.

  • Vedfolner #26 10 months ago

    Let's hope they continue to improve the series - 2011 was a great game with the exception of one crucial error: I really hated that the matches kicked off by themselves. To feel you're in total control is so important in football games and how anyone got the idea of "we'll kick off the matches for them" (and have the rest of the development team say "yes, great idea!!!";) I'll never understand.

  • blackbriar101 #27 10 months ago

    Please be good....please.

  • Claudiov1.0 #28 10 months ago

    Im really excited for this year's game, always was a fan of the series, i hope they make a great game, last year's game was a good step in the right direction, im hopeful this year will be no different...

    Just wish people didnīt argue so much, especially because each one of us can play whatever game they like, so why discussing your opinion....

  • Ant1975 #29 10 months ago

    @LetsgoFlames

    Where is the clever AI in pes? Im not some dumb schmuck, i play football at a high level, i've played many games over many years, the a.i is poor, not helped by some overly aggressive a.i cheating on the cpus part to keep things interesting.

    Crap like you need to play 25 minute games to appreciate the depth is utter nonsense. pes cheats its way to making the user feel like he's in a game. Torres for example, last year, had the pace of a snail, and whenever i seemed to break through on goal a one paced defender would catch up with me and take the ball. If i was winning 1-0 my goalie would always find away to spill an easy shot for a tap in or the cpu would make a through ball and my defender would switch to the wrong man leaving the cpu clear on goal.

    And i also back the guy who says you play on amateur on Fifa. you clearly do as switching to manual and not having the cpu do all the work for you and playing it on a higher level makes achieving 15 goals in a game a near impossibility.

    No you're ok, you keep dreaming the dream, and playing a game that is clearly inferior to its PS2 predecessor, whack your game time up to 90 minutes a game just so you get the full realism Konami have obviously packed in just for you hardcore purist fanboys.

  • immateriaux #30 10 months ago

    It would certainly be a terrific if they can put out a good game and last year's was definitely an improvement. What always bugs me though is people like the Letsgoflames and Handofbeadle above who will simply lie about one game to try to big the other one up. Fifa and Pes are two games that try to capture a football experience and the world would be poorer if we only had one; personally I find Fifa to be a closer experience to ideal football given how it is designed for " pass and move" play, whereas I find PES a bit too exploitable with the through ball and gimmicky (the whole "cards" business, the 15 min segments etc). However neither game actually delivered on their promise last time round and both have faults: Fifa's impact model is bloody awful for a start and I can see exactly why it would turn people off the game. Having been weaned playing ISS on SNES I still always buy PES every year but now I buy Fifa too; so I'm looking for two games soon that compete for attention, each as good as the other, and fanbois can just fuck off altogether.

  • gjgjg #31 10 months ago

    I and most of my friends play evo and very few of these tricks and feints are used in actual play, same with online players actually. I think the biggest problems pes has is AI and general atmosphere. The wii style controlling 2 players looks good though!

  • Stockings #32 10 months ago

    We don't need the arguments every year, no-one's going to change anyone's mind.

    It's the defence that needs fixing the most, from PES6 onwards it's been terrible, the player-switching last year made it even worse.
    I'll always be a PES man simply because I prefer Konami's approach more than FIFA's, but it still needs much more wok to return to what it was, maybe it never will.

    Yes more wok.
    Edited by Stockings at 29/07/11 @ 04:30

  • HandOfBeadle #33 10 months ago

    Fuck it. Don't know why I bother. If a conversation isn't as simple as someone making stuff up rather than knowing what they're talking about then it's no good to some people.
    Edited by HandOfBeadle at 29/07/11 @ 21:23