Serious news for Madden 23 fans: a recent server error has caused players to lose access to their online saves in the hugely popular Franchise mode.
Between December 28 and December 29, players who logged into the Franchise League found their data corrupted due to a storage problem on EA’s Madden 23 servers. The Online Franchise Mode, Connected Franchise Mode and Face of the Franchise saves were all corrupted during this time.
“We’re sorry this happened,” EA wrote in an update (opens in new tab), “We know how important your franchises are to you and we are actively working to restore some files via backup as soon as possible. However, not all affected leagues can be restored. Team Currently estimating approximately 40% of leagues to recover. We will communicate an updated timeline next week around a possible restoration of save files from backup.”
EA says if you logged in between 2.45am EST, December 28th and 12.45am EST, December 29th, you should “start a new franchise”.
Franchise is a very popular mode where you manage teams over several seasons in one long campaign. It captures the NFL experience of the long run and provides a major draw for Madden games beyond just providing a good game of football. Over the course of several seasons, players build meaningful relationships with their teams. It’s one thing to be a Chicago Bears fan, but it’s quite another to lovingly curate your own version of the team over dozens of hours in the context of Madden 23’s new realism.
in the trenches
As you might expect, fans have reacted strongly to losing their beloved Savage.
Hank1581 wrote on Reddit, “Between grad school and work, I don’t have much time to play.” (opens in new tab), “I’ve spent months on this franchise. Madden corrupted the files. I’m beyond words.”
Timequake-Droid wrote, “There have been a lot of problems with Madden over the years, but over 60% of the franchise leads – which is probably the majority of the active ones – are beyond outright corrupt.” (opens in new tab)Asking if EA will offer refunds.
Others have taken the loss in more creative directions. Redditor Lazytowwwwn posted a tribute (opens in new tab) For Terry Torrance, a fantasy player generated by the game who can sometimes boast of absurdly good statistics. “I wanted to take the time to honor their sacrifice. You will never be forgotten.”
For all the convenience of online multiplayer, it’s sad to see an error with EA’s server setup negatively impact the playing experiences of so many football fans. Games like Madden are great because they allow players to chart their own individual courses through the world of the NFL, sticking with their chosen team through thick and thin while making those all-important draft picks each year. Live
The fact that EA only has viable backups available for an estimated 40% savings shows a serious error on their part. If players must hand over their saves to company-owned servers while playing online, the least they can expect is for their data to be safe and secure. While no one can reasonably expect the server infrastructure to be infallible, a 60% crash rate on affected saves, not to mention the much-suffering lack of crossplay, left a lot to be desired from EA. gives.