UEFA Euro 2016 add-on for PES 2016 will only have 15 licensed nations

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Posted February 22nd, 2016 at 10:30 am

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The free UEFA Euro 2016 content coming to Pro Evolution Soccer 2016 will only feature 15 licensed nations. Not only does that fall far short of the 53 involved in the competition, but it’s not even all 24 that advanced to the final tournament which begins on June 10. 

The teams to have official licensing in the add-on to PES 2016 are Albania, Croatia, Czech Republic, England, France, Germany, Iceland, Northern Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Turkey, Ukraine, and Wales.

That means there will be no licensing in the game for Austria, Belgium, Hungary, Poland, Republic of Ireland, Romania, Russia, Sweden, and Switzerland. These nine teams will instead be made up of fake players and wearing generic kits. Based on betting odds Belgium has the fourth best chance at winning the tournament yet won’t be represented in the game.

In 2012 EA Sports was heavily criticized for the UEFA Euro add-on to FIFA 12 as 24 of the 53 nations including the host were unlicensed and therefore featured generic players and kits. The difference there was the company hid that fact until it had already starting being sold. Prior editions of the every-four-year series had been full retail products with complete licensing and the move to digital at a discount price foretold the drop-off in authenticity.

The limited number of UEFA Euro teams (and single stadium) to be featured in PES 2016 is extremely disappointing but at least there’s no money on the line specifically tied to it. Konami will be releasing the content as an update to PES on March 24.

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