It's always been the other way around I thought, the rights and graphics just slowly killed pes over the years.
PES probably has better graphics. They flipped when Fifa did a complete overhaul, it then had better / more realistic and fun animations than PES, which PES had previously when Fifa was the same game but with the licensed teams every year.
I was actually working at EA Games in 2005 just doing game testing for online / network games like Battlefield. We did some bug testing on Fifa 2005, not the next generation Fifa game but one of the old ones. And half the team prefered PES and played it during our lunch break against each other, while the others prefered Fifa. I was one of the ones bringing PES in. And I was one of several people who sent a mail with suggestions about areas where PES is much better than Fifa at the time.
The thing is, not long later I saw an early version of the next generation Fifa. It had some textures missing, including on Sir Alex Ferguson who was shouting the team on from the touchline. I got to play that version of the game a little bit but it wasnt one of my responsibilities. Just something to try on the side. And right from that version you could see a lot more care and passion had gone into making more realistic animations so that players really did look like they were doing the things you see in the grounds.
The old Fifa didnt have that. When you would shoot for example suddenly the ball would move from wherever it was, to the players foot and then the shot would come from there instead of using more realistic physics where the ball is kicked from the position its at when you let go of the shot. Old, outdated things like that which Fifa hadnt bothered to upgrade because it was always the most popular football game so they didnt need to. But now Pro Evo was a better game and becoming popular.
So the new version addressed things like that. That first version of the new generation Fifa games I didnt buy, I stayed with Pro Evo. For me the first one was a bit too slow and plodding. But after that I gave the next generation Fifa a chance and it was so much better than the Pro Evo games, at what the Pro Evo games had been better than Fifa at previously.
It used to be Fifa that cared most about graphics and licenses, until Pro Evo came around. Now its Pro Evo thats about the graphics and these individual licenses while the gameplay still needs a revamp to catch up to the new generation.
Back to sending that list of things that Pro Evo was doing much better than Fifa. EA had already made the next generation game and addressed a bunch of things that were in my list. So while it would be a cool story to suggest that anything I noted was changed because of it, I dont think anything was. Because before they could possibly have implimented it, even if for some reason they saw my notes and decided to change things... The new generation Fifa was already there for me to play, albeit in an early stage.
Maybe my notes and other people's notes were reflected on in the next versions of the game? I guess its possible but chances are a bunch of other people suggested the same things I did. All I know is they got it right after putting the right amount of resources behind revamping the game.
Still waiting for Pro Evo to do likewise.