This year's "NBA Live 19" breaks new ground as the first professional sports game to offer mixed gender competition, continuing a progressive trend from developer EA Sports.
{From: Business Insider}
Equal representation of both genders has been a struggle for the video game industry, with major developers often more interested in pleasing core male gamers than engaging the ever-growing audience of women playing video games. But EA Sports has quietly been taking strides to create games that reflect a global athletic community and include women competing at the highest level of their respective fields of competition.
EA announced last year that "NBA Live 18" would feature all 12 WNBA teams and their rosters.
It was the first time WNBA teams were included in a video game in the league's 21-year history. However, the WNBA teams were limited to only playing each other in the game, and the announcers did not reference specific players during commentary. Despite their inclusion, the WNBA portion of the "NBA Live 18" seemed more like a fun novelty than a part of the core game.
"NBA Live 19" addresses this issue by placing women front and center in the game's career mode, dubbed The One. Players can create and play as a woman or man, and are placed alongside mixed gender teams of NBA and WNBA players. As a game mode, The One is focused on building the best possible streetball team to dominate courts across the world. Facing off against different stars will allow you to unlock them for your team, encouraging players to experiment and find the best combination of men and women.
Male and female players are judged by the same attributes, and there's no apparent gender disparity when playing mixed-gender games. Player abilities are still based on their real life counterparts, but men and women don't have any trouble squaring up against one another anywhere on the court.
EA Sports announced on Monday that a newly released update for the game will include the entire 2019 WNBA Draft Class including Louisville Cardinal Alum Asia Durr!