You could not write a worse way to end 2022 for gamers than what Madden NFL 23 players had to experience over the last month. From modes being inaccessible to missing MUT rewards, players had a rough few weeks to close out the year. Sadly, the worst part was yet to come as now it seems that a large portion of players has lost their online franchise save files to a data corruption issue.
How Did This Happen?
The issue all started on December 26th. Players could not access online franchises, and the Madden NFL Direct Twitter account put out a Tweet saying they were investigating the issue. A couple of days later, around noon on December 28th, the Madden NFL Direct account put out another Tweet saying, “After today’s maintenance, users should now be able to play CFM without issue.”
However, almost immediately, players reported that they again were unable to access their online franchises. Madden NFL Direct would wait until the following day to say they were aware of and investigating the problem. Players waited and hoped that the issue would be solved soon. After all, this was the third time now this month that CFM had been inaccessible to players.
EA Update
Early in the morning on December 31st, Madden NFL Direct tweeted an update from the Madden NFL team. The post said that users began experiencing problems around 2:45 pm EST on December 28th. This was just a couple hours after the Tweet from Madden NFL Direct saying players should now be able to play with no issues. This problem occurred until 12:45 am EST the next morning on December 29th. The post goes on to say that anyone who attempted to log into online franchises during this time period suffered a data storage issue causing their save files to be corrupted. Those who did not attempt to log into their franchises during this time were not affected by this problem. The team is working on a fix to try and restore some of the corrupted files.
First off, we are sorry that this happened. We know how important your franchises are to you and we are actively working on a fix to restore some files via a backup as soon as possible. However, not all affected leagues can be restored. The team is currently projecting around 40% of leagues to be recovered.
This is one of the biggest black eyes Madden NFL and EA Sports have had in a long time. The #FixMaddenFranchise movement wasn’t this big of a PR nightmare for them. Just a few hours after players were told the mode was fine to play with no issues, another major issue with the mode caused more than half of online players who got on during this time to lose everything.
What Happens Now?
This post from the Madden NFL team finished by encouraging players who lost their files to start a new franchise, as the mode should now be functioning as intended. This situation has left a sour taste in the mouths of gamers who just lost hours upon hours of playtime. Many have expressed online that instead of starting a new franchise, they will uninstall the game. They do not want to have to start at the beginning after putting so much work in. Honestly, who can blame them?
The Madden NFL team are working on restoring what files they can and have said they will provide an updated timeline about the situation as soon as they can. We will update this story when more information about franchises being recovered is released.