We are months away from the release of FIFA 16 , and good news for FIFA fans, especially female FIFA players: EA is finally including playable female FIFA teams in the game. It’s such a breakthrough in the sports genre of gaming that FIFA 16’s cover will actually feature not only Lionel Messi, but two female FIFA stars, as well.
Polygon reports EA announced today that alongside Lionel Messi on the FIFA 16 cover is Alex Morgan for the US version, and Christine Sinclair for the Canada version. In the FIFA 16 cover of the Australian version, Steph Catley will be featured beside Messi.
FIFA has long hosted a number of titles for different PlayStation and Xbox platforms, but this move by EA to include female players is the first in FIFA history. When the US soccer team emerged victorious in the World Cup, speculations arose that FIFA would finally be including female players in their lineup. This announcement by EA finally confirmed the rumors.
FIFA VP and GM David Rutter told IGN in an interview that they have been considering including female teams in FIFA games for years now.
“We’ve been chatting about it in the game team for a couple of years now. As you may or may not know, there’s been petitions to have women put into the game, and I’m lucky enough to be the father of two amazing little girls, and both of them play FIFA a lot. They consistently pester me [about] why they can’t play as women … the tools and the technology that we have on the game team now is at a level where you can really do the authenticity of the women’s game justice.”
Morgan expresses her delight and honor to be included in the front cover of the FIFA 16 game coming out this year.
“It is an incredible honor to be one of the first women featured on the cover of EA Sports’ FIFA . I know people all over the world play this game and I’m really excited that FIFA 16 is putting such an important spotlight on women’s soccer. And now to share the cover with today’s greatest player is surreal.”
I’m so honored to be featured on the cover of #FIFA16 . Thank you @EASPORTSFIFA ! https://t.co/vw73wtfncJ pic.twitter.com/5vp8RLUk1x
— Alex Morgan (@alexmorgan13) July 20, 2015
The Washington Post writes that the FIFA 16 game will feature the women’s national teams of Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, England, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Spain, Sweden, and the US. The female teams could be used in several FIFA 16 game modes like Kick Off, offline tournaments, and online friendly matches. Female FIFA teams could also only be played against other female teams.
FIFA 16 will finally be released worldwide on September 22 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox 360.
[Images via IGN ]
