Despite the fact that covering sports games is a rarity for us over here at Nerdist, the news that the next entry in the FIFA series is set to include women’s national teams was too just too juicy to pass up. With the women’s World Cup kicking off next month, the news couldn’t have dropped at a more appropriate time (except for the whole organization-wide scandal thing).
Alongside the exciting revelation, EA also debuted a brand new trailer featuring several real life players confidently stating: “We’re in the game.”
So, not only will the game allow you to choose from 12 national teams including Germany, USA, France, Sweden, England, Brazil, Canada, Australia, Spain, China, Italy, and Mexico, but the game also features full rosters of players like USA’s Alex Morgan, England’s Stephanie Houghton, Canada’s Christine Sinclair and more. The only caveat is that you won’t be able to put male and female teams head to head. I suppose it’s realistic, but it’s still a bummer for those who want to try out the new teams without forcing their opponent to stick to the same gender.
On the inclusion of women in the game, Houghton told BBC, “To be one of the first female players included is something we’ll always be able to look back on.” She continued, “Hopefully it will help raise the profile of the women’s game even further.”
The addition has been a long time coming, which according to FIFA series head David Rutter was partially due to the developer waiting for the appropriate tools. In a statement to The Guardian, he explained, “We needed to have tools and technology in place that could differentiate between men and women. Plus, we had to factor in the time and effort required for traveling around the world to scan faces and heads, record motion capture, etc. It’s been on the to-do list for a while.”
Though we still have a long way to go, at the end of the day, it’s certainly nice to at least have the option to play as a women’s team. With FIFA 16 set to launch September 22nd of this year, and E3 just around the corner, we look forward to hearing more details about the game.
What do you think about the addition? Will you be picking up the controller to play as one of the women’s national teams? Let us know in the comments below.
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HT: YouTube, The Guardian
