With the upcoming FIFA 14, EA promises one of the most realistic soccer simulations ever to hit video games. However, those who wish to play as famous female soccer teams, such as the USA women's Olympic team lead by Abby Wambach, may feel left out in the cold. The publisher has officially announced that female players will not be part of the game.
In an interview with Kotaku, EA Canada executive producer David Rutter explained the development team's position on the subject:
"As a team, we have discussed at length the inclusion of female characters in FIFA, and whilst it's something that remains on our list of features for consideration as part of our mission statement above, we do not have plans to put female characters into the game this year."
This follows statements made by FIFA producer Sebastian Enrique to God is a Geek in which he stated female players would not be included in the game because that would require new player models, a new physics model, and new hairstyles. This is disappointing for many soccer fans here in America, where the US Women's National Team is arguably as popular or even more popular than many international mens teams, and are by far the most successful American team in history.
This follows news that EA, which has secured the rights to the FIFA brand until 2022, is planning to reveal their next-gen plans at E3 in June. As seen in a conference call via Seeking Alpha, EA Labels President Frank Gibeau will reveal what is in store for many franchises, including FIFA, on the PlayStation 4 and next-gen Xbox.
"This will include breakthroughs in graphics and gameplay for some of our biggest franchises, including Battlefield, FIFA, Madden, NBA Live and Need for Speed...We plan to unveil new titles from EA Sports, BioWare, and DICE, and a first look at some brand new games."
Could EA reveal a next-gen FIFA game before FIFA 14 is even out? We will have to wait until E3 to find out.