Famous Real Madrid and Spain player will attract attention to new football simulation

Sep 5, 2011 07:06 GMT  ·  By

Video game publisher Konami has announced that well-known Real Madrid playmaker and Portugal international star Cristiano Ronaldo will be the cover athlete for the upcoming football simulation Pro Evolution Soccer 2012.

The player has stated that he was flattered to be chosen for the cover spot and to become the “face of PES 2012, and by their reasoning behind the cover image.”

Cover athletes have become more important than ever for series like PES 2012, which faces tough competition from the EA Sports made FIFA 12, which has Wayne Rooney and Jack Wilshere on its cover in the United Kingdom and local athletes for other versions.

Having a big star on the cover means that players are more likely to see the video game on a shelf and decide to buy it.

Pro Evolution Soccer 2012 is set to add quite a few changes for the long-running series, with Konami saying that the development team has focused on making players smarter and better able to follow the flow of the game that the player imposes.

Changes have also been made to the mechanics for defense and attack, with gamers set to face players that are ready to hang back rather than launch into decisive tackles.

Konami is also creating an online version of Pro Evolution Soccer which will probably be free-to-play, launching in South Korea during early 2012 and then expanding to other countries.

Pro Evolution Soccer 2012 will be launched on the PlayStation 3 from Sony, the Xbox 360 from Microsoft and on the PC on September 27 in North America and on October 14 in Europe.

The developers are also creating versions for the PlayStation 2 and the PlayStation Portable, which will be available two weeks after that, while the Nintendo Wii port arrives on November 4.