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Madden NFL creative director Rex Dickson leaves EA after 6 years

Madden NFL creative director Rex Dickson has left Electronic Arts after six years in the position. In a post on Twitter, Dickson said he made the decision after “discussions with other leaders on the team.”

It basically sounds like he had creative differences with other team leaders, but Dickson didn’t spell out the exact reasons for his departure. He said it was a collective decision and that it will give “the team, the community, and the Madden franchise a chance for a new direction.”

EA says many millions of copies of Madden NFL every year, and the fans number in the tens of millions. Leaders such as Dickson are critical to keeping the team focused and on top of the need to produce a new Madden game every year.

He said there is “no drama or deeper story” for why he is leaving EA’s Tiburon studio in Florida after 12 years at the company.

Here’s Dickson’s full statement.

Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.