The great war of the soccer simulation genre rages on as Pro Evolution Soccer developer Konami has openly criticized rival EA’s emphasis on aesthetic changes over gameplay tweaks.

PES team leader Jon Murphy has suggested that a lack of gameplay changes in this year’s iteration suggests that EA is running out of ideas. I don’t agree with this, EA made a huge leap with FIFA 12 and to expect the same again in 13 is crazy. The team is going to hold back its next major update until the next-generation version of FIFA, some simple bug fixes and a few new features should be enough to tide fans over until then.

“Maybe EA thinks they’ve gone far enough with gameplay and they’ve got other things to do,” Murphy told OPM. “Maybe they want to attract a different kind of audience with different features.”

In comparison, the PES team is focusing solely on improving gameplay. ”We always focused on gameplay and that’s what we want to get back to. I’ve always thought it’s right that we should be concentrating really hard on the way you play a game against someone else, and that unique PES feeling, which is all about gameplay,” he added.

Konami has lost the annual battle with EA for the last several years, and it doesn’t look like things are about to change with this year’s entries. Konami’s only chance to tip the balance in its favor is to come out all guns blazing on the next-generation of consoles, fail to make any ground there and the war is over.

FIFA or PES? Which is better and why?