EA Sports FC, which EA announced last week, is the first non-FIFA entry in its long-running soccer series. Of course, a game of this magnitude always comes with its share of criticism, but one of the major themes EA has pursued over the years has been to incorporate women's games into the experience, and now the company has introduced female players in the very popular Ultimate Team mode.

This decision has led to a backlash from players based on the fact that the stats of female players compete with those of similarly-rated male players (although height and other factors are taken into account in UT). The opposition centered on whether female players could realistically compete with male players, with some fans calling for splitting men and women into their own UT modes, and some even suggesting that female players should not be allowed to participate in this mode at all, pretending to be basement dwellers . [John Shepherd, executive producer at Electronic Arts, said in an interview with IGN, "It's something we've really thought deeply about. We feel that we can play a really important role in the growth of the sport by introducing fans to it." We have this belief that we want to bring the world together around soccer."

Shepherd further points out a basic but extremely good point about the nature of UT. He says, "[Ultimate Team is] a mode where you can have different nationalities, different leagues, different clubs to make a fantasy team. So we felt it was the best place to do that."

[6 [Fantasy football is a concept that every soccer fan has known long before UT came along, and it has always been about fictional lineups and player combinations. So it doesn't make much sense to gate the fantasy aspect out of the blue. If there is one mode that is better suited to mixing men's and women's games, it is definitely this one.

"This game, this brand, this club, this ecosystem, wants to welcome everyone," Shepherd said.

"As far as our decision on how to integrate women's soccer into the Ultimate team, we feel really strongly about that. But for us, the Ultimate Team is a mode where we can mix and match players to create the best team we can."

Senior producer Sam Rivera reiterated the point that UT is a "fantasy mode. It is Ultimate Team, it is fantasy football.

Even with the integration, male players will still have certain advantages in areas like height and weight, but factors like agility will also enter the equation. Rivera added, "If everything is equal, we play the same way."

The rollout of EA Sports FC continues, and even if it doesn't get off to the best start (just look at the janky cover art), it is already clear that this is a sports juggernaut that is omnipresent throughout soccer events, including the Women's World Cup, which opens today It's already clear. The game's first CG trailer wasn't too well received either, but let's not kid ourselves. The simple fact is that EA Sports FC has no real competition in virtual sports because eFootball is completely stagnant.

EA is clearly committed to doing women's soccer right, which can only be a good thing in terms of basic fairness and opening up the game to a wider audience. As for fans not buying EA Sports FC because of the UT integration of male and female players: ...... Why don't you go out there and kick some balls.