Madden NFL 21 will replace the Redskins name and logo with a ‘generic’ Washington team

The Washington Redskins football team will drop its name and logo following decades of protests by Indigenous activists. A new name and logo hasn’t been chosen yet, so in Electronic Arts’ upcoming Madden NFL 21, the publisher will include a “generic Washington team” as the company waits for “final word on the updated team name and logo design,” according to an Electronic Arts representative.

“We are pleased to see Washington’s decision to change their team name and visual identity,” the representative said in a statement emailed to Polygon. “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.”

The Washington football team has gone by the “Redskins” name since 1933, according to Vox. “The term ‘redskin’ was conceived as, and has always been, a pejorative,” Vox reporter Allegra Frank wrote. Indigenous activists have been protesting the name and logo for decades, including multiple lawsuits. The name change now comes as corporations like Quaker Oats and Unilever announced they’d be adjusting their products, too, amid the ongoing Black Lives Matter protests, Vox reported.

The logo and name change for the Washington team in Madden NFL 21 will be updated automatically via “title updates” that will require players with a physical disk to connect online, “as the game is now in the final stages of preparation before shipping,” the EA representative said.

Audio and commentary, stadium art, crowd gear, motion graphics, and uniforms are among the first places where players will see adjustments to the Washington team. “Players may continue to see some outdated Washington references in other areas of the game at launch, but we are committed to removing all of those from the game in additional title updates coming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,” the representative said.

Madden NFL 21 will be released Aug. 25 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Google Stadia, and Windows PC. It’ll also come to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X when they launch, too.

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