EA Sports' new hockey sim first pro league sports game to have women as playable characters; Olympic stars Angela Ruggiero and Hayley Wickenheiser appearing as "legends."

NHL 13 will be the first professional league simulation sports game to introduce female playable characters, EA Sports announced today. Former Team USA defensive player Angela Ruggiero and Team Canada forward Hayley Wickenheiser will be playable "legends" in the upcoming hockey sim, which is due out next month for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

Ruggiero and Wickenheiser front and center.

Last year's NHL 12 allowed users to create female custom characters, but no real-world players were available. EA Sports general manager Dean Richards said in a statement that the decision to include Ruggiero and Wickenheiser in NHL 13 is a continuation of a commitment the development team made to offer deeper recognition of women's hockey.

Ruggiero and Wickenheiser join NHL stars Doug Gilmour, Jari Kurri, Dominik Hasek, Wayne Gretzky, and Mario Lemieux as playable "legends" in NHL 13.

NHL 13 comes to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on September 11 in North America and September 13 in Europe. A demo for the game is available today for both platforms.

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