Fifa 16 to include women's football for the first time

For the first time ever women's football is coming to EA Sports' Fifa franchise later this year with the release of Fifa 16. The announcement was the first news released regarding the hit sporting series.

You can watch the reveal below...

The women's game isn't as widely represented as the men's, with just twelve women's teams playable, which are: England, USA, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Spain, Germany, Italy, France, Sweden, China and Australia.

The men's game by comparison was represented in Fifa 15 by fifty international sides and 30 leagues consisting of between a dozen and twenty sides each.

Regardless, EA deserve credit for what is a huge step for the franchise and it's most important update to it in many years.

Nick Channon, producer for FIFA 16 told Polygon that women's teams will not be able to compete against the men. He also said: "For us, it was more about getting the most of the best players. The international women's game is big. Obviously that's where the best players are. We wanted to start there."

An EA spokesperson said that the women's teams would be available to play in a handful, but not all the game's modes, these are "Kick Off, Match Day, an Offline Tournament, Skill Games, and Online friendly Matches."

The teams can't be played as in the Ultimate Team or Career modes. When asked if this would change, Channon said: "We'll see what happens. We'll see the feedback when people get to play it."

EA have also confirmed that women players will have their own full set of animations for movement, aided with motion capture involving the Canadian side.

Fifa 16 will be released on 25 September 2015.