Konami's Winning Eleven series, known in many territories as Pro Evolution Soccer, may soon begin featuring official content from Japan Professional Football League, according to a press release from the game company. Konami signed with J.League as a top partner, and the two entities will be working together on the series going forward. Konami's press release on the subject says that the mobile version of Winning Eleven will soon begin to feature officially licensed content from J.League, and Konami will be working to bring smartphone owners more engaging J.League content, even during the off-season.
Presumably, this partnership will leak into the popular console versions of Winning Eleven, which often compete with EA Sports' FIFA titles. Naturally, this detail was not mentioned in Konami's press release.
How the partnership may benefit players
This year's FIFA includes a story mode called The Journey, which draws upon EA's extensive collection of licenses and industry expertise to put players in the cleats of a player starting out in the league and making their way up the ladder to become one of the top players out there. With a J.League partnership, Konami could do something similar with future Winning Eleven games by leveraging this deal and similar ones. J.League managers and players could help to design such a feature, and bring a touch of added realism and emotion that Konami, being a game company, likely would not have been able to muster on their own.
On the order of game mechanics and flow, Konami's deal with J.League could help to add significant refinements that will leave the game feeling more balanced, polished, and most importantly, more realistic. Help in the research and development stages, such as with motion capture, physics, and player dynamics, could lead into players, coaches, managers, and other prominent figures in J.League testing the games out before release to help Konami ship the best soccer game possible.
Sponsorship
Naturally, sponsorship and promotion is another area that this partnership could help. Konami's soccer series is extremely popular, and the endorsement of J.League could help make the series even more popular, especially in its homeland. Outside of Japan, meanwhile, the popularity of Pro Evolution Soccer as a worldwide favorite in the soccer genre could help bring a boost to J.League, adding more fans to the fold and getting more recognition for the league, and perhaps even more foreign eyes on J.League games. Both of these scenarios, of course, spell more revenue for both entities involved.
