The Madden series has seen something of a creative resurgence recently, with last year’s game introducing a surprisingly great story on top of its other football modes, but as of today, creative director Rex Dickson is nolonger working at Electronic Arts.
Dickson, who worked as creative director on Madden sinceMadden NFL 13, made theannouncement on Twitter, saying the decision was made “after many discussions with other leaders on the team,” and that there was no bad blood or “deeper story” responsible for his exit.
“This is as much for me and my family as it is about giving the team, the community, and the Madden franchise a chance for a new direction,” Dickson said in a statement.
It’s unclear by this wording if Dickson is implying the serieswillbe taking a new creative direction, or rather just that it could do so with another person leading the development team.
Hopefully, Electronic Arts doesn’t completely scrap the ideas presented in more recent games. Inour review ofMadden NFL 18, we said the game “makes a legitimate case for the title of best sports game of this generation,” praising its on-the-field football as well as theFriday Night Lights-like mode, “Longshot,” which features Oscar-winning actor Mahershala Ali.
EA Sports’ other franchises have been a bit of a mixed bag as of late. WecriticizedNHL 18for its imprecise control scheme and bare-bones “Be a Pro” mode, but we foundFIFA 18to be a solid soccer game with a grounded and well-acted story. EA even chose to abandon its dedicated FIFA World Cup game this year in favor of releasing the content as a free update forFIFA 18, keeping the community together and ensuring more people are able to participate.
The one sport we’d love to see Electronic Arts address again, however, is baseball. With Take-Two abandoning its MLB 2K series a few years ago, there is currently no baseball simulator available on non-PlayStation platforms. The MVP Baseball franchise was a solid choice back in the early 2000s, and we’d love to see how it would work with the current-generation consoles’ power.
