Video games giant EA Sports has received criticism for failing to include women's players and teams on its popular title "FIFA" in the wake of the United States' dramatic victory for the Olympic gold medal.
The Americans' 2-1 triumph over Japan was watched by an audience of 4.35 million, a new record for NBC Sports Network. The program's standard of play at major events like the Olympics and Women's World Cup has improved dramatically.
Yet, there are still no soccer video games that feature women, denying fans the opportunity to perform as stars like Abby Wambach or Hope Solo on "FIFA," a new version of which is released every year and has sold more than 100 million copies.
Frustrated fan Fernanda Schabarum from Boca Raton, Fla., began a petition this week to try to force EA Sports to change its policy and respond to the additional exposure of women's soccer following a remarkable Olympic tournament. Schabarum started a campaign on the website change.org. As of Saturday evening, the petition already had more than 1,400 signees.
"Athletes, young and old, look up to these women for their athleticism and sportsmanship," Schabarum said. "EA Sports should feature them in the next FIFA release so that all soccer fans can have a chance to play as their favorite soccer stars."
Despite the success of the American team, women's soccer struggles to get attention outside of major championships – a situation that could be helped by the team's inclusion in the wildly popular video game. U.S. league Women's Professional Soccer folded earlier this year amid a sea of debt.
Gold-medal hero Carli Lloyd, who scored twice in the American's final victory, believes adding female athletes to the game could have a positive impact on women's soccer.
"I would love for EA Sports to add females to the FIFA games," Lloyd said. "Women's sports have come a long way, and it will only help grow the game if EA Sports added females to the game."
An EA Sports official said the company routinely reviews fans' suggestions for the game.
"We get literally thousands upon thousands of suggestions from our fans for new features and we have to evaluate those suggestions, such as the inclusion of female players in the game, against our resources, priorities and overall fan feedback," said David Rutter, executive producer of "FIFA 13." "At the moment, we don’t have plans to include female players in the game."
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/olympics--fan-campaigning-for-ea-sports-to-add-women-s-soccer-team-to--fifa-.html
Only if they take their shirts off for celebrations !
Any of the Fifa gamers wanna crack ay guessing what the Spurs player ratings will be? Surely we will get given a few extra stats due to signing the deal with E.A?
Friedel: 81
Lloris: 85
Walker: 83
Kaboul: 82
Vertonghen: 83
Gallas: 81
Dawson: 80
Assou-Ekotto: 80
Parker: 83
Sandro: 81
Dembele: 82
Sigurdsson: 79
Lennon: 82
Bale: 87
Dempsey: 83
Adebayor: 83
Defoe: 82
I'd guess.
Friedel: 81
Lloris: 85
Walker: 83
Kaboul: 82
Vertonghen: 83
Gallas: 81
Dawson: 80
Assou-Ekotto: 80
Parker: 83
Sandro: 81
Dembele: 82
Sigurdsson: 79
Lennon: 82
Bale: 87
Dempsey: 83
Adebayor: 83
Defoe: 82
I'd guess.
Oh really. Cheers for that mate, interesting that Vertonghen has only improved by 1.. I believe he was 80 in FIFA12 and 83 in FIFA11, GHod knows whats happened there. Kyle Walker despite being voted best right back in the Prem has hardly improved. Kaboul's improved the most by 4, Ekotto has stayed the same. Sandro has stayed the same, Dembele has stayed the same, I think Lennon has gone down by 2? shame really. Dempsey has improved by a few and Adebayor has stayed the same. Funnily enough Bale has dropped down from 86 to 85.
I still beat people using those teams playing as Spurs. But then I am good.
I know, our ratings completely unfair, and we've gone down to 4 and a half stars.
The reason behind this (i think) is to seperate the likes of us and Real Madrid. It was hardly fair playing online when i wanted to use Spurs and kept playing against people using Real, Barca, Spain etc...were hardly in their bracket
Well I suppose we were always going to go down to 4 and a half star losing our two best players in Modric (86) and Van der Vaart (87)