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Madden Creator, EA Chief Creative Director Rich Hilleman Departs Publisher
Just a day after EA presented its near- and long-term plans to investors, news about a major departure has surfaced. Rich Hilleman, who served as the company’s chief creative director, has departed the company.
Hilleman began at EA in 1983 as a support specialist. He states on his LinkedIn profile that he began at EA soldering cables and grew at the publisher to develop and produce still-running franchises, including Madden NFL and NHL Hockey.
In May 2008, Hilleman was promoted to chief creative director. He departed EA this month and is currently working for a company called Rattlesnake Electric Sport, an “EKart racing and development team.” According to his LinkedIn profile, Hilleman has been working on “high performance electric vehicles for 20 [years].”
“Rich Hilleman is a pioneer – a creative mind whose work influenced many games at EA and beyond," an EA representative told us via email. "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.”
You can hear from Hilleman about EA’s development process in a video from 2014.
Note: We have corrected Hilleman's title throughout.
[Source: Rich Hilleman on LinkedIn via Polygon]
Our Take
With more than 30 years at the company, Hilleman departs with an enormous amount of institutional knowledge. EA has changed drastically over three decades, but Hilleman rolled with the industry helping to put EA on top of (most) simulation games in the sports category.
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