Electronic Arts will remove all references to the Washington Redskins name and logo from its upcoming Madden NFL 21 game.
The move follows the landmark decision to change the Redskins name and overhaul its brand in response to criticism from activists and corporate sponsors pulling their ads over the name’s racist history.
First reported by Kotaku on Friday, an EA spokesperson confirmed,
“Changes to the name and logo will come via title updates that will download automatically.”
They won’t be able to change every instance of the name right away, but the first changes should tweak the game’s commentary, uniforms, stadium art and similar areas.
We are pleased to see Washington’s decision to change their team name and visual identity. We are quickly working to update Madden NFL 21 to feature a generic Washington team, while we await final word on the updated team name and logo design.
There will be an update to removing all Redskins references which will be ready at launch, however, it will require players who buy the physical copy to download and install the update.
Changes to the name and logo will come via title updates that will download automatically. The first changes will be available to our EA Access players and will include audio/commentary updates; motion graphics and presentation updates; stadium art, environments, crowd gear and signage updates; and uniform updates. Players may continue to see some outdated Washington references in other areas of the game at launch, but we are committed to removing all of those from the game in additional title updates coming shortly after launch.
EA will first update Madden with a generic Washington name and logo, then replace things again with whatever the team decides it will use now.
Madden NFL 21 is scheduled for release on August 25th for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Google Stadia and PC.
