Video game developer Konami has renewed its Official Football Video Game Partner deal with Premier League club Arsenal for the 2018-19 season.
As part of the deal, Arsenal will license its image rights to Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer 2019, so that gamers can play at the Emirates Stadium using true likenesses of Arsenal football players.
This season, Konami has created player and stadium replicas at Arsenal based on 3D scanning technology. For the first time, former players such as Robert Pires, Sol Campbell, Gilberto Silva, Emmanuel Petit and Frederik Ljungberg will be make cameo appearances in this year’s PES.
Arsenal supporters were given a taste of PES 2019 when Konami ran a large-scale promotion event before kick-off at the Arsenal v Real Madrid Legends match, held earlier this month at Emirates Stadium.
Konami joined Arsenal as Official Football Video Game Partner last season. It is a third-tier, global partner of Arsenal, alongside brands such as Betfair, MBNA and SportPesa.
This week, Konami also announced a new licensing and sponsorship deal with Argentinian club River Plate, where the PES logo will appear on the back of the jersey at the base of the player’s number.