Rex Dickson Leaves EA Tiburon and the Madden Team

[Therebelyell626]

As a final F-U to EA, Rex should just dump the entire budget into CFM and say "what are you going to do about it, fire me?"

[ForUntoOblivionSoar∞]

RIP sim dreams...

[Aestis]

For anyone who understands the development cycle, this will have no material impact on M19. If you think you already know how M20+ will go based on this one person leaving, more power to you.

I'm a Rex fan, personally. I'm not excited he's gone and feel he played at least some part in the franchise taking significant & meaningful steps toward more realistic gameplay during the past 4 titles (and while there's still a lot of runway to go, if you don't think Madden has gotten a lot more realistic from M15-M18 then you either aren't paying attention to what's been done or simply don't know what you're talking about).

But I also chuckle that people draw definitive conclusions for a year+ out based on a single fact out of context.

[Mike Lowe]

It's doubtful, but I would love to see Josh Looman oversee or have influence over franchise mode (again). Head Coach had EA's best franchise mode of any game they've ever made, and he headed that up. He also did Longshot, which wasn't a mode I played much of, but got very strong reviews from what I recall seeing.

Rex seemed like a good guy. EA suits seem to have struck again.

[edgevoice]

Best of luck in your future endeavors Rex. I greatly appreciate your input regarding improved gameplay, especially with regards to zone defense, along with full player editing available in franchise mode in Madden 17. After a 4 year hiatus, you won a customer back.

Last year, it appeared to me that you were not as happy with the direction the game was heading. Watching your video interviews and listening to your podcasts concerning Madden 17 had a much more enthusiastic tone to them than over this past year. If that was the case, and only you really know, it's much better to move forward with your career, than be in a situation that you feel stifled in. Thanks for all of your hard work on a game we all probably take way too seriously.

[mtmetcalfe]

Whoa! Coming to this forum this wasn’t what I was expecting to see today. Hopefully things work out for Rex wherever he ends up going. I respected him for his efforts.

As far as the future of the franchise, if this game deviates further from sim/gameplay improvements I will completely focus my energies on other games trying to make it into the football landscape. I’m not gonna spend another X number of years hoping this game improves.

[Big FN Deal]

I wish Rex all the best in his future endeavors and as far as the game goes, the potential impact that stands out to me is that EA uses his tenure as some kind of bs reason, yet again, for why realism/sim is not the best course. Then doubles or even triples down on the unrealistic and gamey focus they have championed under every dev team going on 14 years. EA is so tired with that routine, they did it with H09, releasing a realistic team management model, with no game play, then pointing to that game as an example of realism not selling.

I don't see anything positive for NFL realism in Madden coming from Rex being gone, no more so than I did for when he was there, either the game continues on the same football awful trajectory it's been going on around 14 years or it gets worse imo.

The discussion surrounding this game often seems like Groundhog Day meets 50 First Dates and it's beyond me, why anyone that's been paying attention for at least a few years would expect anything like this to make a NFL realism positive impact on the game. I remember this going on with Ortiz, Cummings, Cam Weber coming on, hiring a crew of physicist, using filming tech from The Avatar, bring on/losing Lauchbaugh, etc, the list goes on, yet still EA has continued to do wtf they have done with Madden.

[Gotmadskillzson]

Him leaving don't matter. Madden will continue to be what the suits want it to be. That will never change.