Madden director leaves studio, gives series ‘chance for a new direction’

By Gabe Gurwin May 3, 2018

Madden NFL 18 — EA Sports

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 no longer working at Electronic Arts.

Dickson, who worked as creative director on Madden since Madden NFL 13, made the announcement 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 series will be 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. In our review of Madden 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 the Friday 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. We criticized NHL 18 for its imprecise control scheme and bare-bones “Be a Pro” mode, but we found FIFA 18 to 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 for FIFA 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.

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Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…

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How to pre-order Madden NFL 23: retailers, editions, and bonuses

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Down, set ... hike! It's a yearly tradition for the biggest, best Madden title to drop in near the end of summer and this year is no exception. Madden NFL 23 has fans of both games and the physical sport joining together in shared excitement for this latest installment in the quintessential football simulation game. Madden NFL 23 will let you carve your own rise into the ranks of the best players of all time, go behind the scenes in the Franchise mode to scout players, facilitate trades, manage your staff, or even build an unstoppable dream team in Madden Ultimate Team.

Madden games have come a long way since the early entries on the early consoles. Madden NFL 23 is a full-on service game, with its own currency and progression to keep the game fresh and relevant all season long. While you could just grab the game after release, hardcore fans of the game who know they will be investing more than the initial asking price should check out what extras there are available for pre-ordering, as well as if the extra content included in the different editions speaks to you. Here's everything you need to know about how to pre-order Madden NFL 23.

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Madden NFL 23’s development was somber and self-aware

This mid-air hit is an example of one of Madden NFL 23's new disruptive FieldSense animations.

While EA's Madden football games often top sales charts every year, those sales haven't reflected quality. The critical consensus on the series has been on the decline in recent years, and Madden NFL 22 was riddled with bugs that hampered the experience. Thankfully, the developers are aware of Madden's flaws and trying to improve its signature gameplay with Madden NFL 23.
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Speaking to Digital Trends, Executive Producer of Gameplay Aaron McHardy painted a picture of a more somber and reflective development of Madden NFL 23 as EA Tiburon mourned rthe passing of series namesake John Madden and tried to make up for the franchise's past failures. While Digital Trends hasn't gone hands-on with the game yet, McHardy highlights that Madden NFL 23 will address many issues fans have thanks to a plethora of bug fixes and a new suite of features called FieldSENSE that touches every part of the experience.
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Exterminating bugs
Before the team could make Madden NFL 23's gameplay better, they had to fix what was broken already. The past few Madden titles have all been riddled with bugs, and the situation got worse than ever with Madden NFL 22. The annual release schedule and pandemic had finally caught up to EA Tiburon's game quality. McHardy outlined the steps the developers are taking to ensure it (hopefully) doesn't happen again.
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More than 20 years into the iconic franchise's history, there's almost no escaping the Madden Curse. Since Garrison Hearst broke his ankle in 1998 shortly after appearing on the cover of Madden NFL 99, most of the players who starred on the game's cover have suffered an injury the following season. Of the 22 players who have been selected to grace the cover of Madden games, 16 have had troubling or abruptly shortened seasons following their cover debut -- including several who suffered season-ending injuries shortly after their game hit shelves.

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