'We are starting to get to a place where we are including meaningful integration of key women players and features that are appealing to female gamers, but I feel like we are just scratching the surface,' EA Sports GM Cam Weber said. That makes sense regarding the sport, but it is not possible to create a female owner, GM, or coach, which are barriers that are slowly evolving within the NFL in real life. 'Madden,' however, lags behind with no women at all. 'FIFA' and now 'NBA Live' have added women in play now modes. For example, 'NHL' has had the option to create a woman since 2012, and 'UFC' allows players to choose a female champion to take through her career. More opportunities to play as women in the suite of EA Sports titles have cropped up over the last five years, but the options vary from game to game. Kim's character represents the growing consideration of the experience of female players of EA Sports titles. 'It feels different because it is different,' Prior said. Prior to acquiring these data sets, the only way to put women into 'FIFA' would be to overlay women's bodies on the men's animations, which would not have met the development team's authenticity standards. When inputting the women's national teams in 'FIFA 16,' the development team gathered motion capture data from a number of players on which they built new sets of animations. The women's game in FIFA is built on USWNT data.

'The women's side of the game is very important to us, so we were looking for how we could incorporate that,' Prior added. Immediately, the difference in gameplay can be felt. It is a moment that comes as a surprise because until taking control of Kim, the only playable character in 'The Journey' is Alex. She makes her senior debut in an international friendly between the USWNT and Germany.

Kim, like her brother, is a talented soccer player. Season two takes a deeper look into his backstory, revealing that Kim is, in fact, his half-sister. The first edition of 'The Journey' debuted in 'FIFA 17' where players took control of Alex as he tried to make a name for himself throughout his rookie season in the English Premiere League. WNBA players are coming to 'NBA Live 18'.'There are a lot of women gamers out there, and it's important that we represent the women's side of the game,' Matt Prior, creative director of 'The Journey,' said in a phone interview. It marks the first time that a playable female character appears in such a story mode and deepens the commitment to women in the 'FIFA' franchise. In this mode, gamers take the field with the fictional Kim Hunter - the American little sister of established character Alex - as she makes her debut appearance with the U.S. on PS4, PS3, Xbox One, XBox 360, and the Switch gaming systems, offers an added bonus to its 'The Journey: Hunter Returns' story mode. 'FIFA 18,' which was released in late Sept. ' FIFA 16' made headlines with the integration of 12 women's national teams into the game, and ' NBA Live 18' followed suit this year by creating a WNBA team game mode.

Video game publisher EA Sports is just beginning to scratch the surface with integrating women into sports video games. Women playing sports is nothing new, but making female sports teams playable in video games is a different story.

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