Developers of FIFA 23, EA Sports, have made a firm commitment to putting women’s sports on the same level as men’s, and it isn’t taking no for an answer.
As women’s football continues to rise both in and out of the video game industry, there has been inevitable backlash from groups on social media. Some claim in investment in women’s football is a “wasted investment”, and the developers are aware of these complaints. Annoyance has been expressed at the lack of development in other game modes, and dismiss women’s football, saying it is just “taking up hard drive space”.
EA Sports aren’t backing down in its commitment to this push though, as their first Women’s Football Summit in London showed. They had a whole host of women athletes there, including Chelsea forward Sam Kerr discussing the importance of this increased representation in the FIFA series.
It has already been announced that the UEFA Women’s Champions League will be included in an upcoming FIFA 23 update, and on top of that, an initial investment of $11 million has been announced to grow the game, even as EA Sports will be losing the FIFA license next year and producing their own football game series.
“EA Sports is at the epicenter of global football fandom, and we recognize the role we have in representing and elevating diversity and participation in the sport,” said Andrea Hopelain, SVP of Brand, EA Sports. “Our commitment extends beyond the pitch in the virtual and real world. The Starting XI Fund reinforces our dedication to unrivaled authenticity and representation in our games, and also showcases our focus on being changemakers for the future of the sport.”
We spoke to Hopelain at the event, and she told us more about EA’s goals.
“It’s one of the most important things that we can do – to grow the love of this sport around the world. Women have had a really challenging history in equality in the sport and being able to play at the same ease and access as men have,” she explained.
Women’s football has been playable in the series since FIFA 16, but it wasn’t much to write home about. Not only was the selection of clubs extremely limited, but there were no unique animations for the models, meaning all of the players still moved unnaturally like men on the pitch. It didn’t look right and was clear how little care was really put into the feature. FIFA 23 made significant changes in this regard, making the women’s game feel more realistic than ever, and both England and France’s top divisions were added alongside the national teams.
“The women’s game is much more technical, for sure. It plays just like women play by having the technology to be able to deliver the right female skeletons. We’re not mapping female players onto male skeletons,” Hopelain explained. Thanks to HyperMotion2 capture using professional women for the first time, developers had the data to build a proper simulation of women’s soccer. “To build the right technology infrastructure to enable the fluidity and technicality of the women’s game, all of those things had to come together, and it took a couple of years to build it right,” she added. “So I don’t believe we’re late. I believe we’re right on time… Because we did it in the best way we could ever imagine delivering.”
It’s undoubtedly a huge step forward, but many fans still feel it is not enough, as you cannot play as a women in the game’s career mode. They’re behind other sports games in this regard, as the latest WWE game has unique story modes for male and female wrestlers.
“We’re just getting started. And, again, it’s about respecting and honoring the women’s game and not just making one-to-one moves with what we’ve done with the men’s game,” Hopelain said to address this. I’d love to distill the expectation that we’re just going to map our actions to what we’ve done with the men’s game because I think that that does the women’s game a complete disservice. And so we have a lot of ambition. Yeah, and I’m not gonna give you all their plans tonight,” she added.
With the rebrand of the series to EA Sports FC next year, hopes are high that women’s football will play a far more major role than it ever has before. One addition fans are hoping for is the addition of women to FIFA Ultimate Team (FUT), although Hopelain didn’t make any solid comments about this.
“We are taking unique approaches across all of our titles,” she said . “Our investment in women’s hockey has been significant over the last year, and I love that you’ve seen and recognised it. 10 IIHF teams inside the game, Sarah Nurse on the cover with Trevor Zegras. We’ve got LPGA players coming into PGA Tour next spring, we’ve got female coaches inside of Madden. We’re taking a really distinct approach with each game, and our commitment is unwavering.”
Online, not everyone is a fan of these decisions as a minority don’t see women’s football as worthwhile. However, Hopelain isn’t phased by this disappointing response from some, instead reaffirming that it is the right decision, and will bring a wider audience to the series.
“Twitter can be a little bit of an echo chamber to your point, a vocal minority,” Hopelain stated. “It’s disheartening to see that kind of response. And on the flip side, the data would prove to you that the decision was the right one. The growth in the women’s game inside of FIFA 23 is grown by triple digit numbers. Chelsea is the number one women’s club being played. We’re really here to serve all of our friends around the globe and not just those that show up on Twitter every day.”
Hopelain’s words are backed up by FIFA 23’s performance, which stands as the best in the series’ 30-year history. It hit just over 10.3 million players in week one and continues to see good numbers almost a month later.
“You can see through all of our actions and all of the big announcements that we’ve made tonight,” Hopelain said. “Our investment in the women’s game between bringing UEFA clubs into the game, our announcement with DAZN, driving eyeballs onto the sport, and our Starting XI fund. The momentum in the world of sport would all point to the fact that we’ve made the right decision.”
Written by GLHF.
