Women added to EA Sports’ FIFA video game

Women’s national teams will be available for the first time this year in the successful FIFA video game franchise from Electronic Arts Sports. Twelve national teams will be playable in FIFA 16, which will be released in North America on Sept. 25.

Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, England, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Spain, Sweden, and the United States of America will all be playable teams.

The news comes just over a week before the start of the 2015 Women’s World Cup, which features a record field of 24 teams. EA Sports’ FIFA franchise is the best-selling sports video game in the world and one of the best-selling video game series in the world.

U.S. women’s national team players Abby Wambach, Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe and Sydney Leroux, along with the Canadian women’s national team, helped EA Sports develop authentic player models and movements. EA Sports captured the movements through a 360-degree body-scanning rig. Detailed and accurate facial attributes and hairstyles for real players on the top teams in the world were acquired through headscanning technology. The results are incredibly realistic graphics:

“I honestly can’t believe all of the science and technology behind the game itself, let alone getting us into the motion capture suits and eventually into the game,” Wambach said. “We’re all excited to see ourselves in the game, but even more excited to see the reaction from all of the fans, including the fans of our team that maybe wouldn’t be expecting something like this from EA SPORTS.”

EA Sports put in the extra work to accurately represent the 12 women’s national teams, traveling to tournaments and events around the world to capture images and data. Women’s national teams will be available for play in ‘kickoff’ mode and tournament mode (women’s teams can only play women’s teams in the game).

“Bringing some of the best women’s players and teams in the world to our franchise is a massive event for EA SPORTS, and we are equally excited about bringing millions of fans a new way to play,” said David Rutter, VP and GM for EA Sports FIFA. “We’re making sure fans get an authentic experience when playing with women’s national teams thanks to our innovative player capture and reference tools, as well as the sophisticated gameplay platform which we will continue to innovate on in FIFA 16.”

The video game will available on PC, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3.

More photos of the technology that went into the addition of women’s players: