EA and its FIFA games' shadow have always loomed over Konami's PES games. Even during the years that FIFA games weren't considered very good, they still sold better compared to the PES games, which definitely doesn't bode too well as far as competition goes.
The past decade, in particular, has only gotten worse for PES though. Konami's struggles reflected on the quality of one of its lone remaining franchises that it still takes the time to update almost every year.
Now it's clear that PES is never going to be objectively the better game compared to FIFA, it seems like Konami has decided to tread an entirely different path.
According to the Japanese company's most recent announcement, PES is dead. In its place is a free-to-play live service version, eFootball, which will go live this fall 2021.
