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Online petition to bring Women's Football to FIFA

Zhao_Yun

Member
While all that is true, average attendance of women's football even in Germany is pretty small. A bit less than twelve-hundred last season for the Frauen-Bundesliga, compared to six thousand for the third Bundesliga in Germany, even some of the fourth leagues have higher average attendance. Then again, they could just start small and see if it pays off.

Yeah, the attendance on club level is still quite small. Most people only follow Women's Football during European or World Cups, but I'd say that most football fans at least know the names of some female players which was my point mainly.

To be fair, i think some 3rd league teams here in Germany have more fans than the womens national team plus i think in Germany 1-3rd league are all included in the Bundesliga license.

The 3rd league isn't included in Fifa. Only the 1st and the 2nd.
 

RoySFNR

Member
Will the stadiums be as empty as with real women's football? I've been told our national team is one of the top performers but nobody actually watches the games. EA is yet to add a lot of highly requested leagues which probably should be added first.

They also probably should focus on making a real, functioning game instead of the shitfest that is FIFA 14.
 
With yearly releases I'd prefer EA to focus on the main game instead of including teams with little to no relevance. At least in comparison to bigger teams.

Offer the women's leagues as dlc would be a good compromise no?
 

kiunchbb

www.dictionary.com
I don't think it will be expensive to create a few teams of women players, it all depends on how much it would cost to license them.
 

Sentenza

Member
I'd rather not let EA get the licence for womens football leagues, leave it open for another company to have a go at making a decent game in its own right.
Eh, while I'm all for adding female leagues to existing franchises, I really don't think a separate game dedicated exclusively to them would stand any chance on the market.
But of course, maybe I'm wrong and there's a crying need for that game.

I don't think it will be expensive to create a few teams of women players, it all depends on how much it would cost to license them.
The expensive part is most likely creating female players, period.
Once done that, the number of teams would hardly make any significant difference.
 

FuturusX

Member
Markets are there to be created. EA should be seeking to expand the appeal of their product.

It doesn't even have to be individual game just a mode. Could even be a paid DLC if you had leagues and tournaments - Olympics and WC are fairly popular in the women's game.

How many young men and namely women would love to see this?...perhaps enough to make it worthwhile and if not you might even expand your appeal to non FIFA players. Think of this as a halo feature (not the game the effect) - purely to enhance the product line and profile of EA.

It makes good business sense if you ask me.
 

dakun

Member
i wouldn't want them to waste too much resources on this.. if they ever decide to do something like this they should just do it like NBA 2k14 did with European teams and pick few of the best teams.

But overall the amount of people that would play a womens football mode would be so insignificant that it's really not worth it.
 

SgtCobra

Member
I don't really think the market for this is big enough for EA to implement it, I for sure welcome more variation but a big selling point of the FIFA games is being able to play as your favorite team/players (lots of which are famously known worldwide - and they are all male) and let's be realistic, women's football is nowhere as famous as male football. Nowhere.

EA would only waste time money and resources with this move, it's nice to want things but people need to see this from a business perspective.

Not in video games biggest market, USA.
Do you know what's the biggest market for FIFA games?

People shouldn't overestimate the popularity of women's football.
 
This game killed ay hope for the future

ae_5844_0_MiaHammSoccer64.jpg

http://youtu.be/S5AJLvEUPGE
 

Goron2000

best junior ever
Eh, while I'm all for adding female leagues to existing franchises, I really don't think a separate game dedicated exclusively to them would stand any chance on the market.
But of course, maybe I'm wrong and there's a crying need for that game.

It's not even the sales or how good the game is to me, I just don't think we should let EA buy more licences on top of the huge monopoly they already have.
 

Sec0nd

Member
This is so not going to happen. EA would have to redo the models and probably a whole lot of animations. Not to mention the effort they would have to put into getting the rights and the money they would have to pay for it. All that for something 1% of the player base would appreciate.
 

FuturusX

Member
It wouldn't be a viable business decision in the slightest.

Not every business decision effects the bottom line directly. Companies make concept products or products that have no direct significant affect on overall profits all the time. But they do it to affect the image of the company or to inspire new markets.

For EA it ticks another box and might appeal to female players - helping to form new FIFA customers. It doesn't even have to be done well - 80% of the player profiles in the game are terrible anyway.


EDIT:
The License would be PEANUTS too. Women's game needs all the exposure it can get.
 

Gandie

Member
Ah okay, always thought Regionalliga was in Fifa.

I could see EA testing it as a DLC but i doubt it will do much.

Regionalliga is the 4th tier in Germany. The third tier is simply called "3. Liga". The issue with that is that the licenses for both 1. and 2. Bundesliga are owned by an organization called DFL (Deutsche Fußball Liga), while the 3. Liga belongs to the DFB (Deutscher Fußball Bund). EA considers the 3. Liga not important enough sadly to get the additional license for lower leagues.
 

Krejlooc

Banned
Not in video games biggest market, USA.

The USA is in no way Soccer's biggest market, so why would the USA dictate the design of their least popular "major" sport? Do you honestly think there are more women's soccer fans in the US than there are fans of the US National soccer team?

really?
 
Can't believe EA using the Ubisoft excuse.

Considering how they gradually have been adding smaller leagues and teams for the sake of completness and broad appeal I could see them one day add womens fotball. Hopefully sooner than later even if I personally wouldn't be using those teams like I don't play with say asian or scandinavian teams.

Well, I don't think a women's league game is going to fly but adding some women's teams to an existing game doesn't seem like asking for too much.

Heck, EA's NHL has all sorts of tiny little minor hockey league teams in it that you can play. Well . . . it used to. I think they might come back.
The "Ubisoft excuse" actually applies pretty well here. Imagine the backlash if they just took a standard player model and added breasts to it. Modelling female players properly would require significant development time and money.

In comparison, they can take a roster list from a smaller league, do a quick read of some scouting reports, and have some intern sit down with an Excel sheet to estimate ratings and assign existing generic models. Licensing is probably cheap because it's not like anyone's clamoring for an Icelandic tie-in so EA can play hardball with them.
 

Corto

Member
The USA is in no way Soccer's biggest market, so why would the USA dictate the design of their least popular "major" sport? Do you honestly think there are more women's soccer fans in the US than there are fans of the US National soccer team?

really?

Ithink there would be more interest in USA women team than in any Saudi Abdul Latif Jameel League team.
 
Well, women's football has a completely different kind of dynamic (or lack of) compared to the men's version.

Sure, you could just replace the models but if you want to do it right you would need to write a new match engine.
 

The Llama

Member
The USA is in no way Soccer's biggest market, so why would the USA dictate the design of their least popular "major" sport? Do you honestly think there are more women's soccer fans in the US than there are fans of the US National soccer team?

really?

I would imagine they sell more copies of FIFA in the US than in any other country, just because of the high population. Feel free to prove me wrong though because that's just a guess.

Anyway, I wouldn't be opposed to adding women's football to the game, but I'd be concerned about how it would play. I actually watch a lot of the US womens national team, so I'm pretty familiar with the game, and it's definitely slower and (to be completely honest) sloppier than than the men's game. Not sure how they'd translate it to FIFA other than basically capping the players attributes at 70 or something like that.
 

SDCowboy

Member
Is there actually a market for it or is this just PC bullshit? If there's actually a market for women's soccer in the games then of course it should be in there.
 

FuturusX

Member
Well, women's football has a completely different kind of dynamic (or lack of) compared to the men's version.

Sure, you could just replace the models but if you want to do it right you would need to write a new match engine.

We are talking about EA here. They are the masters of re-using code plastering on new rosters and calling it good. They can get it done.

Is there actually a market for it or is this just PC bullshit? If there's actually a market for women's soccer in the games then of course it should be in there.

Of course there's a market. No question. Is it an easy money - suckers will keep buying it as long as we throw in a few updates and keep the rosters fresh each year - kind of market? Probably not.
 

Cowie

Member
Kind of baffled by all the negativity. One might almost think that all of the complaints about proper use of resources would magically shift to something else if it were to turn out that the effort to include women would be negligible.

Almost.
 

itsgreen

Member
Why would they even try it if people aren't even bothered to watch it (on TV)...

It would be just pissing away money...
 

dakun

Member
Ithink there would be more interest in USA women team than in any Saudi Abdul Latif Jameel League team.

i think you're wrong. of the 15-20 million Fifa players i'm sure about 100.000 could be from Arab countries interested in playing their league. I doubt you'd find more than 10.000 people interested in playing womens football more than once or twice.

Of course the first reaction is to say, "yes make it happen". But realistically nobody will play this..

also considering the crazy drop in quality there is with womens football, you'd have a league that would equal playing the baddest mens team on Fifa right now.. and i doubt anybody wants to do that.
 
this would not be worth it in the end I believe. It would take quite some time and probably not fit into the yearly schedule.

Also surprised to not see more bans in this thread. I was banned for saying I didnt care about the gender issue in AC Unity and got banned for several weeks. Several people in here have said they dont care and are not banned. :/
 

SDCowboy

Member
Of course there's a market. No question. Is it an easy money - suckers will keep buying it as long as we throw in a few updates and keep the rosters fresh each year - kind of market. Probably not.

Is there enough of a market though to make it worth cost of the player names and development, though?
 

Kevyt

Member
The thing about "not being a market" is because there's not a lot of marketing for games. EA and other publishers mostly market their games to their demographic which include males 18-40 years old. That's their main market.

But if they find a way to fit this into their FIFA franchise and good marketing to appeal to woman then this definitely has potential. Everything is marketable if done right. It's a risk but it would be a great way to advance the series.

It's not just in the US where woman play soccer, it's also in many places in Europe, and Latin America. Additionally I think a FIFA woman's soccer game could be appealing to their mostly male audience as well.
 

FuturusX

Member
I love how may developers and game producers we have in here. All with intimate knowledge of game licensing costs and development time. Who knew.
 

SegaShack

Member
I would like to petition for a new Battletoads but even if 30 million people signed it the company doesn't have to react to it in any way.
 
J

Jotamide

Unconfirmed Member
release it as a 25 dollar dlc to fifa 15 or standalone and I'll bite. The thing is that a lot of people won't buy it due to it not being that popular outside of the US.
This. It makes financial sense as DLC only.
 

Foggy

Member
Is there enough of a market though to make it worth cost of the player names and development, though?

Yeah, if you're trying to change minds that only care about the bottom line, you're not going to make much traction by saying "Well you're making boatloads of money, you could totally make less and it wouldn't be a big deal". They didn't get this point with that sort of mentality.

Wouldn't bother me one bit if they implemented it in future games, but I don't know, I think there are better battles to pick than this one at this point.
 
You can't petition an entertainment company to create what you want, can only petition for laws or initiatives.
What!? Of course you can petition an entertainment company to create something. There's just nothing that compels them to give two shits about your petition.
 

Abraxas

Member
As someone who play lots of FIFA, a WFIFA game wouldn't be one i'd buy. I wouldn't care mind, unless it led to stuff getting taken out of the main game.
 

Zhao_Yun

Member
I would imagine they sell more copies of FIFA in the US than in any other country, just because of the high population. Feel free to prove me wrong though because that's just a guess.

If I remember correctly Fifa 13 sold 1,23 Million copies within 48 hours in the UK alone whereas it sold 345k within 24 hours in the US. In Germany the game sold 700k copies within the first few days as well. Considering the fact that Fifa sales are high in other European countries like France and Spain as well, the significance of the US market in comparison to the European market is rather low.
 

Dylan

Member
The more I think of it, the more it seems like a pretty great idea. Although a long shot, it would be awesome if EA could work out some sort of deal with women's sports leagues (not necessarily just soccer games), something to cut down the licensing fees for say, the first few games, just as a pilot run.

It would be a great PR boost for both EA and women's sports.

Imagine being a little girl whose older brother usually gets the new FIFA for Christmas, but this year, her parents were also able to buy the women's version for a cheaper price. Maybe that girl becomes interested in competitive soccer as a result. Maybe the overall popularity of the sport increases as that generation grows up, and maybe people start actually respecting women's sports, and female athletes finally get the respect and financial support they have deserved for decades.
 
The thing about "not being a market" is because there's not a lot of marketing for games. EA and other publishers mostly market their games to their demographic which include males 18-40 years old. That's their main market.

But if they find a way to fit this into their FIFA franchise and good marketing to appeal to woman then this definitely has potential. Everything is marketable if done right. It's a risk but it would be a great way to advance the series.

It's not just in the US where woman play soccer, it's also in many places in Europe, and Latin America. Additionally I think a FIFA woman's soccer game could be appealing to their mostly male audience as well.

It's nice and stuff but women's football itself has basically no market. Empty stadiums, low tv ratings.
The World Cups are the only events which get a little attention.
 
I don't think it will be expensive to create a few teams of women players, it all depends on how much it would cost to license them.
They could probably do this. Pick a couple of the top women's teams from around the globe.

I think it is how they catered for some of the more obscure countries in the past, just had a couple of teams in there, so you wouldn't have any league options for the team but you could use them in a quick match etc.
 

Kinyou

Member
The thing about "not being a market" is because there's not a lot of marketing for games. EA and other publishers mostly market their games to their demographic which include males 18-40 years old. That's their main market.

But if they find a way to fit this into their FIFA franchise and good marketing to appeal to woman then this definitely has potential. Everything is marketable if done right. It's a risk but it would be a great way to advance the series.

It's not just in the US where woman play soccer, it's also in many places in Europe, and Latin America. Additionally I think a FIFA woman's soccer game could be appealing to their mostly male audience as well.
What would they have to change about their marketing? FIFA already gets plenty of advertising. Should they start a "FIFA, now for girls too" campaign? I'm also not sure if the male audience is all that interested in female teams considering how the audience that woman football has still pales in comparison to the male leagues.

I don't think some of them can

Can't believe EA using the Ubisoft excuse. As it implies here that even in the future they wouldn't add women. If it would take multiple years to implement and women's football got popular suddenly they'd be years off or rush female heads on males bodies. Might as well start now and spreading the cost over years then have a big ad campaign once it's near ready.
And if it doesn't suddenly get popular they will have wasted tons of money.
 

FuturusX

Member
Is there enough of a market though to make it worth cost of the player names and development, though?

I think EA could get the license for almost nothing (in relation to other licensing) and the likeness of only the key stars is where you put your effort.

The women's game needs more public exposure, the deal won't be an issue.

The merits of whether this would enhance the profits of the game are irrelevant so long as you could implement without expending to much cost - I think you could.

Women's World Cup is next year. Do as a mode for FIFA 16 and ride that small wave and see where it goes.
 
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