Over recent seasons the FIFA versus PES rivalry has had a bit of Manchester United vs Leeds United feel about it. The passion to outdo the other remains as strong as ever, but differing levels of success over the past decade has muted what was once a premier contest between heavyweight propositions.
The past few seasons have seen PES position itself as the 'connoisseurs' football game, the kind of thing that will be best understood by those more than happy to spend bitterly cold, midweek December evenings watching the likes of Cray Wanderers battle to stay in the Ryman North League.
FIFA, conversely, is primarily for the masses... the people that know the difference between a Bale and a Ronaldo, but don't quite understand the meaning of 'false nine' or 'sweeper keeper'.
One approach has resulted in the generation and retention of a steady stream of diehard supporters, the other in incredible commercial triumph. Ask both sides, however, and, if they're being truthful, they would like a little slice of what the other has got.
"We've made a mistake in the past of attempting to be known as a game for football connoisseurs," says PES European brand manager Adam Bhatti, a man ridiculously skilled at the game.
"What we don't want to do, though, is prohibit people from playing because they think it's too difficult or too hard to learn.
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"Yes, we want our players to be playing football in the way that it is played in real life, but the problem we've had is working out a method to make that fun rather than frustrating. That's the challenge we've given ourselves for PES 2015."
Providing accessibility without muting depth is a balance that the vast majority of respectable games struggle to accomplish. One of the ways to do it is by packaging game-wide features in a variety of frameworks that appeal to different portions of your audience, allowing different forms of consumption for various tastes.
Most interesting among PES 2015's new frameworks is 'Role Control', a new way of approaching co-op multiplayer with the aim of giving each player a greater sense of importance and impact.
One player controls the defence, the other midfield, another the attack. Think of it as three-player co-op table football.
"When you normally play a game of two versus two, you end up changing players over the whole team," Bhatti explains. "It can be clumsy as both of you switch to a new player and start chasing after the ball.
"Role Control offers more organisation and it lets you communicate between yourselves and understand what it is you should be doing in different situations. Basically, it lets you play football in a way more intelligent than even the best AI could allow."
A bold claim, but an excellent idea. One of Role Control's best potential uses will surely be in teaching new players some of the deeper intricacies of the game.
With two more experienced players commanding the tactically more taxing defence and midfield, a fresh-faced newcomer can be afforded the freedom to get to grips with movement, passing and shooting using the striker/s.
As the said newcomer becomes better versed in these fundamentals, they can begin taking on more responsibility by altering their role as their experience grows.
My Club is also new, a mode that will sound and feel remarkably similar to anyone that has played FIFA Ultimate Team. You build the best team you possibly can by buying new players that compliment those that you already have. Real cash or in-game currency can be used.
Where My Club differs from EA's offering is in the little details, with agents and managers added to the mix in a bid to give you greater tactical and recruitment options.
The signing of players requires you go through an agent, with different 'level' of agents giving you access to differing quality of player. A low-level agent can only put you in contact with low-level players, and so on. Should you not have any better agents, you can assign multiple inferior ones to the same player.
In the world of PES 2015, one low-level agent and another low-level agent equals... a mediocre agent. We're not sure how realistic that is, but, well... it's a video game.
More interesting is the manager element, which sounds far more in-depth than the way they are implemented in Ultimate Team.
The system you play must match your manager's skillset and priorities to get the most out of it. You can't, for instance, expect Pep Guardiola to be the best man to oversee a group of players suited to a long-ball/target man approach.
"Should you have players that don't work for the style of manager you have then you have two choices,' Bhatti says.
"Either you can adapt the players you have to play in a different way, which is a slow process but you can do it, or you can bring in new players.
"Players that understand their roles better means you have a richer understanding between them. That goes on to affect how effectively they perform on the pitch.
"We want to allow people to build the kind of team they want to use, but in a way that doesn't force them to hit the transfer market and bring in a whole load of new players each time."
With Ultimate Team already having hit the kind of popularity capable of convincing players to invest in each annual release, PES 2015's My Club faces an uphill battle when it comes to attaining equal admiration.
Given this, it'll likely take a couple of years' worth of iteration to get right.
However, nothing would make us happier than seeing My Club succeed and at least match Ultimate Team at its own game. If there's one thing football games need it's healthy competition, and trying to better an idea seen elsewhere is one very direct way to achieve that.
The biggest problem PES 2015 will have, though, is simply getting people to spend money on it. FIFA has such a powerful foothold now that almost everyone knows someone that buys it every year, making it the de facto football game of choice to play amongst friends.
It could be that PES 2015 is the start of a groundswell of change, but any serious turning of the table is going to take years to achieve at this point. Whatever the case, fingers crossed that this season's offering gives us reason to question the status quo.
PES 2015 will be available on PS4, Xbox One, PS3, Xbox 360 and PC from November 13 worldwide.
