PES 2018 is regarded by many Pro Evo fans as Konami's best football game in recent years - so when PES 2019 was announced, gamers expected something special.
Sadly, it didn't deliver. Server issues, buggy gameplay and woeful goalkeepers were just some of the issues regularly cited by the community.
PES 2020, then, has its work cut out - but according to European PES brand manager, Lennart Bonzein, they've taken on as much feedback as possible to create the game Pro Evo fans deserve.
"Obviously we've noticed feedback from our fans over the past year," he said. "We've noticed it, we've passed it on to our development team and they looked into it and tried and change as much as possible.
"This year we've added so much into the game. We've added a huge amount of new licences , Master League is now in Year 2 and has loads of cool and nice additions, we added MatchDay which is a complete new mode.
"I can't talk about esports right now but we'll be announcing our plans soon and this will be super interesting .
"The gameplay itself, you feel a difference. Not only because of the camera angle but the action on the pitch feels different to 2019, that just as an overall package I would say PES 2020 has made a massive jump forward.
Pro Evo kicked things off this year by attaining the exclusivity rights for Juventus
The war between FIFA 20 and PES 2020 is now hotting up, with both games releasing in a matter of weeks.
The last few months have seen both EA Sports and the Japanese publisher make a series of high profile announcements - and it's the latter that has arguably come out strongest.
The Allianz Arena will only be available in PES 2020 this year
"Obviously they have so new modes but I am following them and watching them and I would say this year, in terms of announcements and stuff, we are ahead. I'm not saying that because I am biased, it's just a fact."
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Bobzien added: "We follow the product, we watch what that they're announcing, what they are doing. We are keeping a very close eye on the game.
"To be fair, they've announced a few things, but they haven't announced a lot - which is a bit strange in my opinion, because usually they are going out quite big.
"If you look at the July for us, it was very crucial for us in terms of our partner club announcements and it was something people did not expect."
PES 2020 will feature a fully licensed Serie A - drawing them on-par with FIFA 20
EA Sports announced earlier this year that Volta Football, a FIFA Street-like mode, would be packaged with this year's game.
This was trumped shortly after, with Konami announcing an exclusive partnership with Juventus - causing EA to change the club name in their game to Piemonte Calcio.
READ MORE: Konami announces PES 2020 partnership with Euro 2020
To add more salt in the wound, Konami revealed they have won the rights to Euro 2020 - and will be providing that experience in PES 2020, as well as putting on a dedicated esports tournament.
EA has only announced a deeper partnership with the Bundesliga this year, but still won’t have Bayern Munich’s Allianz Arena on FIFA 20, with those honours going to PES.
READ MORE: Everything you need to know about PES 2020
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