Guildford, UK. — Electronic Arts announced on August 29, 2012, that for the first time ever in a professional league simulation sports video game, EA Sports NHL 13 has added female athletes as playable characters.

Former Team USA superstar Angela Ruggiero will join former Team Canada great Hayley Wickenheiser, both four-time Olympic Ice Hockey medalists, as playable legends in NHL 13. NHL Hall of Famers Doug Gilmour, Jari Kurri, and NHL legend Dominik Hasek will also be added to the roster of legends which includes the likes of Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux.

The NHL 13 demo is available for download now via Xbox Live and PlayStation Network. Promising the biggest year on year innovation to the franchise on this console generation, NHL 13 will be available on September 11, 2012 in North America and September 14, 2012 in Europe.

The addition of women’s hockey legends as playable characters within the EA Sports NHL franchise is the continuation of a commitment that the development team made to create greater representation for women’s hockey beginning with NHL 12.

“With the release of NHL 12 we added generic female characters in our Be a Pro mode based on a request from a 14-yr old female fan who emailed our staff because she felt underrepresented as a hockey videogame fan,” saidDean Richards, General Manager, NHL, EA Sports .“This year we are very excited to continue our effort of creating a more representative experience for female hockey fans by adding two of the greatest female athletes to ever play the game in Wickenheiser and Ruggiero to NHL 13.”

“The EA Sports NHL franchise took a big step last year by including female characters to create a more inclusive experience for female hockey fans,” said Hayley Wickenheiser. “I’m excited to be a part of NHL 13 and hope that the addition of women’s hockey legends will encourage greater participation in hockey from young women everywhere.”

Legends Integration in NHL 13

Legends in NHL 13 will be integrated across several modes:

• Be A Legend – gamers will experience the glory of playing their entire Be A Pro career as a legend as they attempt to shatter the most impressive records in hockey, achieve legendary milestones and complete legends tasks.
• Legends teams – Play as the legends team, Team Ruggiero or Team Wickenheiser, which are comprised of legends and current NHL greats in head-to-head play – within Play Now, Online and Battle for the Cup modes. Players on Team Ruggiero and Team Wickenheiser were selected by each athlete, respectively.
• Hockey Ultimate Team & Be a GM –Gamers will have the ability to add legends to any team roster in Be a GM mode, or collect ultra-rare legends cards and use them within their Hockey Ultimate Team experience.

Headlined by all - new True Performance Skating, and supported by an innovative new A.I. system dubbed EA Sports Hockey I.Q., NHL 13 will deliver a revamped gameplay experience that accurately captures the speed, creativity and strategy of NHL hockey.

In addition, NHL 13 will also deliver new experiences that connect hockey fans to their friends and the real world of hockey with the all-new GM Connected and NHL Moments Live modes.

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Dispite the not so impressive lineup from EA’s shooters and other respective genres, probably the biggest event from the Press Conference was their sports games. It was clear that EA Sports has put a lot of time and effort into their sports games to really leave a mark this year at E3.

First, EA announced Madden 13. Powered by the Infinity Engine, Madden 13 shoots for the most realistic physics engine to date. Madden 13 also introduces Connected Career, which combines various career modes from past games and integrates them into an expansive social network career campaign. In Connected Career, the player chooses between a variety of players, from the current roster to popular legends, and works to level them up by completing various tasks to earn experience (XP). Players also have the option to retire their player if they feel they want to change their position, where players will still retain their XP and status.

Players can also manage their team via PC, tablet, or iPad, and can keep up to date on events, status updates, or high scores through the direct twitter feed built into the game. Madden 13 really seems to bring a new life into the sports genre. Also for the Madden series, EA announced Madden Social, a free-to-play Madden game for facebook and various mobile devices. Madden Social is set to launch in the fall.

EA Sports also announced their next game in the FIFA franchise with FIFA 13. The FIFA series promises a new, more in-depth feel to the world of soccer (football outside the US) by incorporating the moves and reflexes of Lionel Messi, one of the world’s greatest soccer players. By incorporating Messi’s playing style, FIFA 13 promises to be one of the most realistic soccer games to date. As for returning fans, those who have FIFA 12 data retain their XP and recieve bonus supplies upon installing FIFA 13. FIFA 13 offers a connection to FIFA games on iPhone, iPad, and Android devices.

EA announced that EA Sports and the UFC will be coming together to release future UFC games through EA Sports, a big break for the UFC in the gaming industry. The future looks bright for the UFC for breaking away from THQ (Toy Headquarters) and joining up with one of the biggest sports game developers of all time.

This year is going to be a hard act for EA to follow, because EA has recently been announced as the worst company in the United States next to previous winners such as AIG and BP. More details about EA’s worst company award can be found here. This year does seem to be the year for EA Sports. With so much involvement in the social aspect of their sports games, and the recent acquisition of the UFC franchise, this year’s lineup of EA Sports games may finally be more than just a glorified DLC expansion of the sports genre.

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