The

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

license has been used by four different companies. Debuted in 1996, the series has only had five games published so far, and after being in the hands of Krisalis Software,

Silicon Dreams Studio Silicon Dreams Studio Limited was a British video game developer based in Adderbury, England. History Silicon Dreams Studio was founded by Geoff Brown in March 1994 as the in-house development team for video game publisher U.S. Gold, also fo ...

and

Konami , is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company, video game and entertainment company headquartered in Chūō, Tokyo, Chūō, Tokyo, it also produces and distributes trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, pachinko machin ...

, the license now lies in the hands of EA.

Krisalis (1996–1998)

Krisalis Software had a strong history of football video games in the past, and inclusively released ''

European Club Soccer ''European Club Soccer'' (known as ''World Trophy Soccer'' in North America and in Japan) is a 1992 association football video game by Krisalis Software released for the Mega Drive, Mega Drive/Genesis and based on ''Manchester United Europe''. It ...

'', a game that simulated the old knockout format in 1992. With the official branding, Krisalis worked on a 3D engine, fitted with the ''Tacti-grid'' and gameplay in the line of their older games. It had all 16 teams present in the 1996/1997 Champions League with the actual groups, plus national teams. Only one title was produced, distributed by

Philips Media Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters i ...

Silicon Dreams (1998–2002)

With

, who also developed the ''World League Soccer'' series, ''Champions League'' had four titles, ''98–99'', ''Season 1999–2000'', ''Season 2000–2001'' and ''2001–2002'' released, aimed mostly at the

PlayStation is a video gaming brand that consists of five home video game consoles, two handhelds, a media center, and a smartphone, as well as an online service and multiple magazines. The brand is produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment, a divisi ...

, but PC releases existed for the games. It replaced the national teams with finalists of all competitions since 1960, also including scenarios (in 98–99, with fake settings, in 1999–2000, based on the previous finals, including the 1999 final last minutes). The first two games were published by

Eidos Interactive Square Enix Limited (formerly Domark Limited and Eidos Interactive Limited) is a British subsidiary of the Japanese video game company Square Enix, acting as their European publishing arm. The company formerly owned ''Tomb Raider'', which was in ...

, whilst the last two were published by Take-Two Interactive.

EA Sports (2004–2007, 2018–present)

In November 2004,

Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the d ...

announced a brand-new licensing deal and further development of the game, which was published before the second round of the 2004–05 competition started. It used the same

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

engine, and was now the fourth licensed football title EA has in its catalogue. ''UEFA Champions League 2004–2005'' was released in early 2005 for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, Nintendo GameCube and Windows and had licenses to many leagues in Europe, stadiums including Stamford Bridge and Anfield and also licenses to the players for the clubs.

Clive Tyldesley Clive Tyldesley (born 21 August 1954) is an English television sports broadcaster. He was ITV's senior football commentator from 1998 until 2020. In that role, he has led the ITV commentary team at four World Cups and four European Championships ...

and Andy Gray did the commentary for the game and the graphics and gameplay were taken from ''

FIFA Football 2005 ''FIFA Football 2005'', also known as ''FIFA Soccer 2005'' in North America or simply ''FIFA 2005'', is a football simulation video game released in 2004. It was developed by EA Canada and published by Electronic Arts. It was released for the Pl ...

'', released in 2004. A career mode was made into the game where a player had to win the Champions League with various scenarios. EA Sports Talk Radio - a feature previously featured in games such as '' Madden NFL 2005'' - was incorporated into the career mode, and was presented by Patrick Kinghorn and ex-footballer Tony Cascarino. It was also the only UEFA-based video game to be released for the GameCube. '' UEFA Champions League 2006–2007'' was released by EA Sports on 23 March 2007. There are four versions of the game, one for the PS2, one for the PSP, one for the PC and one for the Xbox 360. The game modes differ among PS2, PSP and 360. The PSP, PS2 and PC versions were developed by

HB Studios HB Studios Multimedia Limited is a Canadian video game developer based in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. It is best known for its Rugby football, rugby and cricket games. History HB Studios was founded in early July 2000 by Jeremy Wellard in Lunenburg ...

while the Xbox 360 version was developed by EA Canada. The UEFA Champions League returned to EA Sports in ''

FIFA 19 ''FIFA 19'' is a football simulation video game developed by EA Vancouver and released by Electronic Arts on 28 September 2018 for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and Microsoft Windows. It is the 26th installm ...

'', as EA secured the license after the deal between Konami and UEFA expired. The tournament is available as a standalone tournament mode, in The Journey, Career Mode and in FIFA Ultimate Team related content, with

Derek Rae Derek Rae (born 1967) is a Scottish association football commentator and presenter who currently works for ESPN and ABC in the United States for the English-language coverages of Bundesliga, DFB Pokal, and La Liga and Deutsche Fußball Liga for ...

and

Lee Dixon Lee Michael Dixon (born 17 March 1964) is an English retired professional footballer and pundit who played as a right-back for Arsenal. Dixon was also capped 22 times for England. A childhood Manchester City fan, Dixon began his footballing ca ...

as commentators for the tournament.

Konami (2008–2018)

On 11 September 2008,

officially released the news that they had secured a four-year deal for the rights of the Champions League beginning with '' Pro Evolution Soccer 2009'' and ending with ''

Pro Evolution Soccer 2012 ''Pro Evolution Soccer 2012'' (''PES 2012'', known as ''World Soccer: Winning Eleven 2012'' in Asia) is a video game which is the eleventh edition in the ''Pro Evolution Soccer'' series developed and published by Konami with production assistance f ...

''. The deal allowed Konami to use the details of the

in a separate game mode within the game, In 2012, Konami has had extended the deal for 1 more year to feature the UEFA Champions League again within '' Pro Evolution Soccer 2013''. In August 2013, Konami confirmed that ''

Pro Evolution Soccer 2015 ''Pro Evolution Soccer 2015'' (abbreviated as ''PES 2015'' and known as ''World Soccer: Winning Eleven 2015'' in Japan) is a football simulation game developed by PES Productions and published by Konami for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Pla ...

'' would feature UEFA Champions League. In June 2015, Konami reached a deal with UEFA to hold the license until 2018. On 18 April 2018, UEFA announced an end to their 10-year partnership with Konami following the final in Kyiv.

References

{{International Superstar Soccer/Pro Evolution Soccer Association football video games Electronic Arts franchises Konami franchises

video games Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device to gener ...

Video game franchises introduced in 1996

Krisalis (1996–1998)

Silicon Dreams (1998–2002)

EA Sports (2004–2007, 2018–present)

Konami (2008–2018)

See also

References