The creative director of EA's flagship football franchise, Madden, has announced via his Twitter feed that he is no longer an employee of the company. Rex Dickson had been working in the role for the past six years, overseeing every game in the franchise since Madden NFL 13, as well as the NCAA 14 title released for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Details of the reason for the split are unclear, but the statement makes it seem as though the decision is mutual, with Dickson mentioning that he wants to focus on his family and citing the need for the game series to adopt a new creative direction.

In terms of the feedback that the series has received under Dickson's tenure, it has very much been a case of relatively consistent performance, but possibly without the innovation the series is craving. All of the games released since he took over the role have garnered a score of 80 or more, and received generally positive feedback from reviewers, but there has been some criticism that EA is not doing enough to move the series forward in the current generation.

Perhaps in response to calls for change, Dickson has hinted that the series may well be heading in a "new direction." Unfortunately the statement may leave us with more questions than answers. The statement does say at the end that Dickson had been working on Madden 19, despite the fact it is yet to be officially announced, but with E3 on the horizon it may well not be long before more information becomes available.

Despite a lack of core gameplay innovation, recent years have still seen some major changes to the franchise, with Madden NFL 18 being the first game in the series to be built in the Frostbite engine. Madden NFL 18 also saw the introduction of a dedicated story mode known as "Longshot," which was relatively well-received by the community.

In the meantime, EA has stayed quiet on the split and what it will mean for the franchise going forward, but it is likely the case that Madden NFL 19 is largely complete, and should hit the rest of its development milestones with or without Dickson at the helm.

Madden NFL 18 is available now for PS4 and Xbox One