The introduction of women’s football in EA SPORTS FC 24 Ultimate Team is tantamount to a revolution. How does the developer plan to deal with the female players?
It had already been speculated here and there, but still caused an uproar when it was officially confirmed in Amsterdam in mid-July: Ultimate Team will be enriched by female professionals in EA SPORTS FC 24. More precisely, players from five top international leagues: the Women’s Super League from England, the D1 Arkema from France, the German Women’s Bundesliga, the Spanish Liga F and the US National Women’s Soccer League. In addition, selected clubs from the Women’s Champions League based in other leagues will also be represented.
Equality at every level
But how exactly will female players be incorporated into Ultimate Team? That’s relatively easy to answer: in the same way as the men. This means that female players will also be draftable in packs, available for selection in drafts, eligible for Squad Building Challenges, and eligible for the new “Evolutions”. The mechanics are designed to gradually upgrade lower-rated cards by completing tasks with them. In addition, there will be female Icons and Heroes for the first time.
Equal treatment is also planned in terms of ratings. The best female footballers in the world should be able to keep up with their male equivalents in their ratings. “We rate the female and male players in comparison to the competition they face in real life,” Senior Producer Garreth Reeder eSport revealed in Amsterdam. In concrete terms, this means that a Sam Kerr and an Erling Haaland could have the identical overall strength. This should make the female pros playable.
Chemistry system with twist
In order to incorporate the female stars around Kerr, Alexandra Popp & Co. into mixed teams, the items will also be left cross-gender at club and national level. Reece James and his sister Lauren give each other chemistry points, as both come from England and play for Chelsea FC. However, they are separated in the leagues. Alexandra Popp, for example, links to Giulia Gwinn or other players from the women’s Bundesliga, but not to Bayern’s new superstar Harry Kane.
But the balancing remains open. EA SPORTS is still struggling with physical components such as body size. This is a very relevant aspect, as the “body types” also have a decisive influence on how well an item actually performs on the virtual pitch. Reeder also openly admits this problem with regard to goalkeepers. It is a “challenge” for which he was not yet able to name a solution in mid-July.
EA SPORTS leaves balancing questions open
David Jackson, vice president of EA SPORTS FC, was a little more concrete. In an interview with eSport, he admitted that women’s football is “a different sport from a technical, muscular and biochemical perspective” compared to the men’s game. But he at least hinted at solutions: “You don’t send a small male player into a header duel with Haaland for a corner either. Maybe Haaland won’t get the ball at all because it will be defended collectively differently. Maybe there will also be far fewer corners because the game is much more fluid.”
Final facts will probably only be created when the game is released at the end of September. Even before that, the developer wants to announce some ratings, which should give a foretaste of the abilities of male and female players – who, according to Jackson, will be able to do “everything that men can do”. In case of doubt, perhaps at the expense of the realism otherwise strived for.