Publisher Electronic Arts has announced today that female footballers will be introduced to the long-running FIFA franchise for the first time in the upcoming FIFA 16.

With female footballers eligible for selection in both single-player modes and the online multiplayer, EA has confirmed that FIFA 16 will include 12 women’s national teams: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, England, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Spain, Sweden and the United States.

David Rutter, vice-president and general manager of EA Sports FIFA, expressed his delight in bringing “some of the best women’s players and teams in the world to our franchise is a massive event for EA Sports, and we are equally excited about bringing millions of fans a new way to play.”

“We’re making sure fans get an authentic experience when playing with women’s national teams thanks to our innovative player capture and reference tools, as well as the sophisticated gameplay platform which we will continue to innovate on in FIFA 16,” he added.

As motion capture sessions were held with prominent footballers for last year’s FIFA 15, EA has revealed that they have had similar sessions at EA Canada with four footballers from the United States’ female national team: Sydney Leroux, Abby Wambach, Alex Morgan and Megan Rapinoe.

Female footballers from multiple national teams also feature in a brand-new trailer for FIFA 16 (see below), which combines recordings from mocap sessions with in-game footage from this year’s football instalment.

“I honestly can’t believe all of the science and technology behind the game itself, let alone getting us into the motion capture suits and eventually into the game,” says Abby Wambach, the all-time leading goalscorer for the United States’ national team.

“We’re all excited to see ourselves in the game, but even more excited to see the reaction from all of the fans, including the fans of our team that maybe wouldn’t be expecting something like this from EA Sports.”

FIFA 16 is scheduled for release in North America on September 22 for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

EA, however, has not revealed an official release date for FIFA 16 in Europe, Australia, Asia or South America at this moment in time.

Check out the first batch of high-resolution screenshots featuring female footballers in FIFA 16 below.

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