A Case For Women's Soccer in Video Games

[Steve_OS]

A year ago, the soccer world was focused on the World Cup in Russia. As France...

Written By: TJ Henderson

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[loveinanelevator]

Quote:

However, I’ve realized in recent weeks that there was a big flaw in my messages, and I should have been asking myself “where is the representation for women’s soccer? Where was their 2015 edition? Where is their standalone title for 2019?”

Where are EA Sports...


MLB Game
Tennis Game
Golf Game
You get the point.



You can't honestly think that a standalone Women's World Cup Soccer game would be profitable? Especially coming after the fact there was no WC in 2018 for the Men.

Quote:

Let’s pay our respects.

I did by watching and cheering for them every game throughout the World Cup. EA has metrics on who plays what within their games. If enough people spent large quantities of time playing with the Women, you would see them focus on them more.


What I hope EA does in the future is keep slowly adding to the Women's side of the game, with more teams, etc. Just like they are doing for FIFA 20 with the Volta mode and having both male and female players.

[KennyJ1976]

Using the Women's World Cup Final is not a good example of viewership for women's soccer. *For one reason, it's a uS national team in a final . People will watch that whatever the sport is just because it's our national team. *Another reason is if our national team wasn't in the final, do you think it would get even half the views it got in this country? *I hate to say it but women athletes will never sell videogames because the target audience for sports videogames doesn't watch women's sports. *I guarantee you if EA made a stand alone MLS game and a Women's World Cup game, the MLS game would sell more.*

[loveinanelevator]

Quote: Originally Posted by KennyJ1976

*I guarantee you if EA made a stand alone MLS game and a Women's World Cup game, the MLS game would sell more.*

ESPN and Konami tried twice to make an MLS game, under two different names, to little fanfare. I would not make a guarantee on that but neither would be a profitable endeavor, so it's a moot point.



Speaking of profits, according to US Soccer, the USA Women's team has lost $27 million since 2009. They were also paid more over the last eight years than the Men's team. Can't post a link (under 5 posts) but this was released by US Soccer just a few days ago.

The case against a developer creating a Woman's Soccer video games is pretty simple. The NHL, Canada's National pastime, is more popular in the US than Soccer and the majority of that popularity is thanks to the MLS, with the exception of every four years when the Women's National team plays. There are already two popular soccer games on the market and one has playable National Women's teams.

[TJ Henderson]

Quote: Originally Posted by loveinanelevator

Where are EA Sports... MLB Game Tennis Game Golf Game You get the point.

Don't confuse these annual events with the power of the World Cup of either gender and the attention it demands...moreso than the biggest annual events of tennis, golf etc.
This isn't advocating for a FIFA Women's game, it's using existing framework to flesh out the presentation of the World Cup.

As for revenue...
Here is information drawn from WSJ.

In the eight FIFA World Cup tournaments held on the women’s side, the U.S. women’s team has won four and either came in second or third place in the others. By contrast, there have been 21 FIFA World Cup tournaments, but the U.S. men’s team did not qualify for about half the tournaments, and only placed as high as third once — in 1930.

There are certain areas in which the women have generated higher revenue than the men have in recent years.

Let’s start with revenue from games, which have recently accounted for about one-quarter of the federation’s gross revenues.

When the Wall Street Journal audited the federation’s financial reports, it found that the U.S. women’s soccer games earned more than the men’s games, in total, during three years after the women’s team won the World Cup in 2015.

Specifically, from 2016-18, the women’s team brought in $50.8 million in revenue, while the men’s team brought in $49.9 million. That’s a difference of less than 2% in the women’s favor.

Looking year by year, 2016 was actually the only year in which the women’s team generated more revenue from games — $24.11 million, compared to $22.24 million for the men. In 2017, both teams brought in about the same revenue at $14.61 million, and in 2018, the men’s team brought in $13 million compared to the women’s $12.03 million.

This pattern marked a reversal from prior years: In 2014 and 2015, the men’s team earned $8.31 million and $11.71 million more than the women’s team, respectively.

Beyond game revenue, U.S. Soccer brings in money through marketing and sponsorships; this category accounts for about half of the total revenues in recent years. Marketing and sponsorships, which includes the sale of broadcast rights, is hard to credit to either the men or women, because these transactions are made as a bundle, not separately for each team.

That said, there is anecdotal evidence that the on-the-field success of the women’s team has given the federation a windfall.

"The World Cup final in 2015 and this year’s final set records for U.S. viewership for a soccer game," said Ryan J. Lake, a sports-law specialist at the Lake Law Group in Denver. "This year’s final did about 20 times better than the men’s World Cup final last summer, in the U.S." (The 2018 men’s World Cup final pitted France vs. Croatia.)

In addition, Nike has announced that women’s jersey sales are setting records for either men or women.

These achievements are even more notable given what the women’s team argues in the lawsuit: that U.S. Soccer has given them fewer resources and does not announce their games with enough time to get the biggest audience.

[loveinanelevator]

I have no doubt of the money created by both World Cups. My point that you quoted is that Golf and Tennis are year round sports and baseball in itself has a lengthy season. So there is money and interest generated year round. World Cup is once every four years (or two years factoring men/women) and lasts a month. A lot of interest in a short period of time and then most of world goes back to worrying about how their club teams are doing.


You are only comparing US Women to US Men. A sport the US Women have dominated and where the men are mediocre at best. Even with that amount of success the revenue is still even and that is with the Men missing out on the last World Cup. Go find the numbers for pretty much any other nation, outside of maybe Canada and it's going extremely lopsided.

[tril]

maybe they should release a game every 4 years then as a special edition.

the girls market for gaming has increased, and they arent just playing cutesy games.

My daughter games, and she likes sports games. and her question in regards to NBA2k, MLB The Show, is where are the girls in the game.

she plays golf games, she plays Super Mega Baseball because of this. we created her as a pitcher in SMB2.

and I thought it was just her, but its all of her friends, they game. from sports games to shooters.

I just think sports leagues, and organizations in general does a poor job marketing women's sports in general, unless its gymnastics or ice skating and Tennis.

for example If I wanted to increase WNBA viewership, Id maybe do what the d2/d3 schools do. schedule a woman's and mens game on the same day. Have the NY liberty play a 5 oclock game then have the Knicks play at 8. give a discounted price of admission for the 2 games. not sure if they do this yet.

[coach422001]

Quote: Originally Posted by tril

maybe they should release a game every 4 years then as a special edition. the girls market for gaming has increased, and they arent just playing cutesy games. My daughter games, and she likes sports games. and her question in regards to NBA2k, MLB The Show, is where are the girls in the game. she plays golf games, she plays Super Mega Baseball because of this. we created her as a pitcher in SMB2. and I thought it was just her, but its all of her friends, they game. from sports games to shooters. I just think sports leagues, and organizations in general does a poor job marketing women's sports in general, unless its gymnastics or ice skating and Tennis. for example If I wanted to increase WNBA viewership, Id maybe do what the d2/d3 schools do. schedule a woman's and mens game on the same day. Have the NY liberty play a 5 oclock game then have the Knicks play at 8. give a discounted price of admission for the 2 games. not sure if they do this yet.

I believe NBA2K20 does include a WNBA league which may add to the appeal of the game for folks like your daughter and friends who follow the league.