EA Sports responded to the sexist statements from fans saying that including female football players in EA Sports FC 24‘s Ultimate Team mode is unrealistic as ‘female players are not as skilled as male players’.
Ultimate Team Evolutions — its new name in EA Sports FC 24 — allows men and women to play with and against each other for the first time in the series. In an interview with IGN, Electronic Arts vice president and executive producer John Shepherd said that the team “thought deeply” about the inclusion and that Ultimate Team was a “great spot” to communicate its mission that this sport is for everyone.
“We have a vision of connecting not just the 150 million fans we have now, but a billion fans,” said Shepherd. “We want this game and this brand, this club, this ecosystem, to welcome everybody.”
Shepherd pointed players towards Kick Off, a mode that represents real clubs and does not let a player start a mixed gender match. “Ultimate Team is a fantasy mode,” added Sam Rivera, senior producer of EA Sports FC 24. “You don’t see Mbappe playing with all the Icons. It’s Ultimate Team — fantasy football is what’s happening there.”
Furthermore, Shepherd championed the efforts of the toxicity team within Electronic Arts working to identify and rectify hateful conduct in the communities of its games. “It’s something we take really seriously,” he said. “We’re moving to some new tech in our backend on the server to help us with that.”
“But that’s just one thing of many. It’s a group of people constantly looking at the toxicity in the game and understanding how we can make sure it is a safe environment for everybody. But it’s one of those things that’s going to take constant effort for us to continue to focus on,” concluded Shepherd.
In other gaming news, it was announced that Payday 3 will have an always-online requirement in order for players to make the most of its cross-play and cross-progression features.