fifa world cup
Journalists look at a light installation showing the official logotype of the 2018 FIFA World Cup during its unveiling ceremony at the Bolshoi Theater building in Moscow, October 28, 2014 Reuters/Maxim Shemetov

The upcoming game, “FIFA 16,” will feature 12 international female teams for the first time. Game developer Electronic Arts announced that female soccer players will be included in the new game, forming 12 international teams, namely, the USA, England, Germany, Italy, France, Brazil, Spain, Sweden, Australia, Mexico, China and 2015 World Cup finals host England.

A number of recognized faces will be seen when the game launches in September 2015 such as Abby Wambach, Steph Houghton, Alex Morgan and Nadine Kessler. David Rutter, series VP and general manager, explained how the developmental team is working to meet the technical challenges of including female players.

“It’s been in the pipeline for a few years, and really it was just a case of making sure that the game was in a good enough state for it the work properly. We needed to have tools and technology in place that could differentiate between men and women. Plus, we had to factor in the time and effort required for travelling around the world to scan faces and heads, record motion capture, etc. It’s been on the to-do list for a while,” said Rutter.

The video game “FIFA” only featured male players since it was first launched in 1993. Although the recent inclusion of females in the game is a sign of progress, TIME stated how women are still far behind male teams in real life in terms of how they are treated by FIFA. The upcoming Women’s World Cup in June 2015 will require the female teams to play on artificial turf fields instead of real grass. Some of the top female players filed legal action against FIFA and the Canadian Soccer Association in 2014 but FIFA failed to act in a timely manner, causing the women to drop their challenge in January 2015.

To contact the writer of this story, send an email to v.doctor@ibtimes.com.au