EA Sports FC24: Win for Inclusivity

By: Mr. Barnett

There has been a lot of talk about EA Sports losing the naming rights to their flagship FIFA franchise and having to go with the new EAFC name instead. Some people were worried that the name was part of the success and that the new games would struggle. So far, that has not been true, and just as many people as usual are flocking to play the world's game on their gaming systems.

One of the things that has struck me as super positive about the new game may be something pretty small to some people, but I think it shows a huge step in the right direction for EA. For me, the single biggest change has been including women in Ultimate Team. In the past few versions of FIFA, you could play as female teams, but only in certain modes. Now, EA have added women to one of their most popular portions of the game, so you can build the best team possible out of both men and women.

I was happy to see when I started my Ultimate Team with my fresh copy of FC24 that there were not only women in the team, but that their stats were matched to their male counterparts. My fear was that women would be at a disadvantage in the game, so they would never really be used in regular gameplay (unless there was some kind of challenge to play with players from their leagues or something). EA balanced it so that a woman that has 90 strength compared to other women is the same as a man with 90 strength. Some will complain that this isn't what real life is like, and I get that. But, in the interest of representation and getting women into the game and the sport overall, I think this is a huge win.

Honestly, it made me super happy to see my daughter's reaction when I had women in my team. She was initially surprised, but then she was watching me play and rooting for me to score goals with the female players. So, huge shoutout to the people at EA Sports for taking a step toward building a better community in gaming, in sports, and in my own living room.