PES drops Mark Lawrenson

Mark Lawrenson will not be on commentary duties in PES 2011, publisher Konami has confirmed.

The former Liverpool defender and current Match of the Day pundit is a recognisable name to football fans, but has previously been criticised for what some called his wooden delivery in previous PES titles.

We’re keeping Jon Champion,” European PES team leader Jon Murphy told CVG. Lawrenson’s delivery was a little forced at times. But that was partly him not living it in the studio and partly the way our scripts were written. Neither helped the other.

With Jon Champion we’ve always had someone who’s better at ad libbing. We’ve not only changed one member of the commentary team – which I hope people will be really pleased about – but we’ve gone for a much more live effect with the sound generally.”

Murphy went on to explain some of the technical improvements the PES team has made to the way in which it goes about producing the in-game commentary, as well as other aspects.

We’ve changed the scripts and the studios we use, so we have done a certain amount. I think we’ve done enough to improve the atmosphere. In addition, the menu screens are a lot less ‘Japanesey’, a lot less clunky than they have been in the past.”