A particularly nasty glitch with Madden NFL 23’s Connected Franchise Mode (CFM) appears to have irretrievably destroyed a number of players’ CFM save files. After investigating mode connectivity issues last week, EA tweeted (opens in new tab) that it resolved the issue and that users “could play CFM without any issues”. However, players who attempted to log in during the 22-hour period between the “fix” and 12:45 PM EST (9:45 AM PST/5:45 PM GMT) had their save data overrun with bugs that are still on lurking in the system. However, players who haven’t logged in in that time should be fine.
EA says (opens in new tab) (through Ars Technica (opens in new tab)) it’s working on restoring players’ corrupted saves from backups, but says the “team currently expects about 40% of leagues to be restored,” which has left more than half of those affected (I know, my math skills are impressive) the long climb to franchise glory. Multiple Reddit users (opens in new tab) tell stories of franchises with more than 30 players going down the drain through the outage.
“The 3 online franchises I play in are lost,” said the user gregtime92 (opens in new tab), “All active leagues with 32 teams filled with users. This is beyond ridiculous.” Another, notice3 (opens in new tab)says, “We are crazy in our 7th and have real friendships because of our competition […] and it just hurts. We’re still in a bit of shock and figuring out how to proceed.” Similar stories are repeated countless times on the Madden subreddit, and that’s just part of the overall community.
If your saves are corrupted, EA “[encourages] you to start a new franchise” now that the “mode is active”, and you no longer log into it, you no longer risk destroying your franchise save file. That will come as cold consolation to fans who are in- game have lost years of work I imagine, and given that player reaction to Madden NFL 23 is already mixed at best – only 47% of over 2,000 Steam reviews (opens in new tab) were positive at the time of writing – it’s likely this will be the final nail in the coffin for many fans’ devotion to the game. The fact that EA literally told fans it was safe to log in when it wasn’t will only add to the irritation.
Madden’s Connected Franchise mode has been a staple of the series since it began in 2013 with the mind-boggling name of Madden NFL 25, allowing players to control an NFL player, coach or manager in online competitions. Most importantly, this allowed you to show off your success in the faces of your friends by playing the same mode where you rose through the ranks and entered the NFL Hall of Fame. That so many of the game’s careers and rivalries are now irretrievably lost is chillingly painful.
I’ve reached out to EA to ask why so few saves are expected to be restored, and I’ll update if I hear back.