In what is likely to be the only positive news for FIFA at this present time, the award-winning football franchise is set to feature 12 international women’s teams in it’s latest edition, FIFA 16.
Since its inception in 1993, EA Sports’ FIFA series has consistently sold millions of copies worldwide and is widely regarded as the best football simulation game on electronic consoles.
And in what will be a first for the franchise, the newest edition of the game, which is set to be released later this year, will feature 12 women’s teams, 11 of which will appear in the upcoming Women’s World Cup in Canada.
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Series vice-president and general manager, David Rutter, claims the remarkable innovation has come after years and years of technical challenges.
“It’s been in the pipeline for a few years, and really it was just a case of making sure that the game was in a good enough state for it the work properly,” said Rutter. “We needed to have tools and technology in place that could differentiate between men and women. Plus, we had to factor in the time and effort required for travelling around the world to scan faces and heads, record motion capture, etc. It’s been on the to-do list for a while.”
“We needed to have tools and technology in place that could differentiate between men and women. Plus, we had to factor in the time and effort required for travelling around the world to scan faces and heads, record motion capture, etc. It’s been on the to-do list for a while.”
While female teams have always been on the mind of FIFA’s creators, Rutter claims that an advanced understanding of the next-generation technology has allowed for the implementation of female’s to occur.
“The big change we’ve had to make is rebuilding the animation rig, in order that the skeleton underneath each player works with different proportions,” he continued. “Our underlying animation system was universally based on height and build. Rather than manipulating the proportions between joint and bone, it was like stretching an elastic band.
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“Our underlying animation system was universally based on height and build. Rather than manipulating the proportions between joint and bone, it was like stretching an elastic band.
“Now we’ve had to implement a new system that allows for the hips to be moved, the shoulders to be moved vertically, and the width of those bones and joints to be a factor too. It’s a pretty big change. The cool side effects are that we now have scalable skeletons, so we can also support different body types in the men’s side of the game.”
“A large number of female athletes have long hair, so we’ve had to focus on improving that element too. Again, that enables us to improve the look of male players with similar hairstyles.”
However, it seems the prospect of male vs female engines are still a while away, and Rutter claims the ratings system will differ for men’s and women’s.
“You will get 80-rated players in the women’s teams but they’re not the same as an 80-rated player in the men’s game.
“Our Cologne team has been through a ton of women’s matches over the last year or so, gathering details, information and their opinion on the players, in order to create these ratings.”