EA Sports has announced that for the first time in the long running series, Fifa 16 will feature 12 national womens teams.



“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, 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.”



This is not some tacked on mode, to ensure it was as authentic as possible, the team went through the full motion capture process with a series of players. Capturing all new player movement was done with meticulous detail and supported by a motion capture session at EA Canada with four top players from United States Women’s National Team:  Sydney Leroux, Abby Wambach, Alex Morgan, and Megan Rapinoe.

The players’ movements helped to build new locomotion for women in FIFA 16 including new walks, runs, sprints, and horizontal movement. Soccer Canada also visited EA to provide full-player references captured using the 360 degree body scanning rig – the references were then used to develop new player models. And the mobile headscanning unit travelled to a variety of tournaments and events around the world to capture facial features including hairstyles to ensure players look as realistic as possible in FIFA 16. Players in the game will look and move in game like they do on the pitch when representing their country.



“The entire Westfield Matildas team are honoured and excited about this exposure for the game, especially at a time when women’s football is exploding in popularity.” says Kyah Simon, Vice Captain of the Westfield Matildas.  “For Australia to be included as one of the 12 Women’s National Teams in FIFA 16 - is another massive platform to showcase just how far women’s football has come. I am a huge fan of the FIFA videogame franchise and think this move will have such a positive impact on the sport.” 


Be sure to look for the Matildas and the other 11 new teams when Fifa 16 releases on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 later this year.