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Finally! FIFA 16 to make room for women's soccer

The long-running FIFA video game franchise is gaining 12 women's national teams as EA Sports gears up for the newest version, due in September.

Anthony Domanico
CNET freelancer Anthony Domanico is passionate about all kinds of gadgets and apps. When not making words for the Internet, he can be found watching Star Wars or "Doctor Who" for like the zillionth time. His other car is a Tardis.
Anthony Domanico
2 min read

Every year, EA Sports comes out with another FIFA video game that lets couch potatoes around the world play the beautiful game with the world's top (male) players and (male) teams. Now, as revealed in a video posted to YouTube on Thursday, the popular video game franchise will join the 21st century by finally adding the ability to play as women.

FIFA 16, which is expected to be released in September 2015, will feature 12 women's national teams that can compete against each other in Match Day, offline tournament and online friendly matches. The playable teams are Germany, USA, France, Sweden, England, Brazil, Canada, Australia, Spain, China, Italy and Mexico, and the player likeness for each of these teams is comparable to that of the top international and club teams on the men's side.

We're still a long way off from a full representation of women's soccer, however. Unlike the mens' teams, which can play against any team from any league around the world, the women's national teams can only play against each other. You won't be able to play as Chelsea, Liverpool, Barcelona or any of the other women's club teams out there, though hopefully we'll see the integration of women's teams become deeper over the next few years.

Watch the trailer above to get a glimpse of the process of adding soccer's top female stars to the best soccer game on the planet. Adding these clubs to the game is a great start, but EA still has a long way to go to fully recognize the legitimacy of women's soccer.

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Women are coming to FIFA 16. It's about time. Video screenshot by Anthony Domanico/CNET