Chief creative officer Rich Hilleman departs EA

The man who helped define Madden and EA Sports has left the company.

Polygon reports that the publicher’s chief creative officer Rich Hilleman departed earlier this month, although there’s no word yet on where he’s heading or why he has left.

Hilleman has worked at EA since 1983, rising from support specialist to his most recent post. During that time he was instrumental in designing the firm’s popular Madden series.

However, he has become critical of EA’s work of late, saying at the 2015 DICE summit that EA’s games are difficult for gamers to master.

“Our games are actually still too hard to learn,” he said. “The average player probably spends two hours to learn how to play the most basic game.”

Despite this, the departure seems to be reasonably amicable, with EA still singing his praises.

An EA representative later told GameSpot: “Rich Helleman is a pioneer – a creative mind whose work influenced many games at EA and beyond. 

“We are thankful to Rich for his contribution over more than 30 years with the company, and we look forward to seeing what he pursues next.”