Sports video games are notoriously awful. Rarely does anything about them change from year to year, other than roster updates and an occasional graphical overhaul. The gameplay stays relatively the same, so the fun stays pretty much the same. In fact, the fun may diminish as several sports franchises turn their attention to lucrative modes like Ultimate Team or Diamond Dynasty, neglecting modes that give games public appeal. EA Sports’ Madden NFL game is arguably the worst offender.
I don’t have to say how badly the Madden franchise has fallen in recent years. Do a search on YouTube and you’ll find a library of creators with in-depth videos about the unprecedented drop in quality of Madden games. You could probably do it with any sports franchise – FIFA, NBA 2K, MLB: The Show. Even a series as beloved as the NHL series has seen a huge drop in consumer ratings over the past few years. However, with the popularity of soccer in America, Madden has more or less become the childish poster child for sports video game mediocrity, and last week Madden made perhaps his biggest gaffe, a real serious daisy, If you want .
Madden’s Christmas Gaffe
If you don’t know about Madden news, I don’t blame you. I have not played Crazy 23 Since week 4 of the current NFL season, and I only bought it because I’m a weak individual who succumbs too quickly to peer pressure. However, I hope you will still be upset when you realize what Madden has done to its userbase.
It all started on December 26, when Madden gave its users a flawed franchise mode for Christmas. I guess they were all on EA’s naughty list for not stealing other people’s credit cards to buy more MUT packs, I’m not sure. Anyway, for some unknown reason, people were having trouble logging into Connected Franchise mode, which is the only mode that some people, myself included, are currently playing on Madden. It’s a way of running seasons with friends and playing against each other in a “realistic” setting.
If I can’t play Connected Franchise mode, I’m not playing their terrible game. Luckily they were investigating the situation and hopefully it would only be a few days before Connected Franchises was up and running again and are functioning correctly. No.
TWO DAYS! It took them two days to set up their second most popular mode! My word, EA Sports’ incompetence never ceases to amaze. Okay whatever. Maybe it was a huge problem that needed to be solved. At least it’s working again and people can start playing with their friends again. After all, the official Madden Direct account had given gamers a thumbs up on connected franchises.
This was tweeted the next day. Whoops ! It turns out that not everything is resolved. I know we told you everything was fine, but really we just wanted our users to come back so you can start spending money on our terrible product again. We don’t care about this game mode, so we put minimal effort into fixing it, and once the tape started to hold, we told you all you could go back. This was not the case however.
That’s how the above tweet felt. EA Sports had neglected Franchise Mode, and now that there’s a problem, they’re doing next to nothing, hoping that minimal effort will hold them back like it always has.
Madden 23 News Keeps Getting Worse
Unfortunately, mminimal effort just didn’t work this time, it may have destroyed multiple users’ files.
“Hello Madden Franchise Community,
We wanted to provide you with an update and next steps regarding your online franchise, CFM leagues and FOTF saves starting 12/28.
From the developers: On Wednesday 12/28 around 2:45 PM EST, players trying to access the Franchise server received an error stating that leagues were not available. The issue persisted until 12:45 a.m. EST on Thursday 12/29. Unfortunately, if you logged into Franchise Leagues during this time, your data was affected due to a data storage issue that resulted in Franchise file corruption.
To note: Players and leagues who did not log in during this window, your leagues have not been affected and are currently safe to log in and play.
First of all, we’re sorry this happened. We know how important your Franchises are to you and are actively working on a fix to restore some files via backup as soon as possible. However, not all affected leagues can be restored. The team currently expects around 40% of leagues to recover. We will communicate an updated timeline next week regarding the potential restoration of backup files from a backup.
If you logged in during the window above, we encourage you to start a new franchise as an EA mode is operational. Stay tuned @MaddenNFLDirect for updates around franchise catering.
The above is a real statement from Madden developers. The too long; didn’t give a damn” of this statement is that anyone who attempted to access Franchise Mode between December 28 at 2:45 PM ET and December 29 at 12:45 AM ET, had their file corrupted and ultimately deleted. . For simply trying to play the game, players received a huge major major, after Madden told players that it was okay to try and switch back to Franchise mode. Holy smokes, talk your bullshit all the time. Talk about a hilarious blunder, right? I’m sure all of those players loved losing their six-year franchise where they built a 93 dynasty against their friends with a rookie X-Factor linebacker. I’m sure none of them were upset.
The statement says some of the leagues will potentially be restored, but it doesn’t offer a timeline for that fix. They also predict that only 40% of files will be backed up. In other words, more than half of all files are gone forever. In reality, the number is probably in the range of 5-10% and Madden is just trying to save a bit of face by giving players a number that gives them some hope that their franchise will recover. Pathetic.
Having connection issues is bad, but it’s not a problem that Madden has solved. Ultimately, if the issue was simply that some users were having trouble logging in, even though it took two days to fix, players would have forgotten about this issue pretty quickly. But to say it’s okay to go online and punish franchise players for it… that’s a tear that even Flex Tape would struggle to mend. How can their user base still trust anything the company says? I don’t care how many dances and touchdown animations you add to the game, I lost my 22 year old quarterback Johnny Flanagan!
The sad thing is that Madden can literally try to save face by offering exactly what I said above – an emote or animation that can floss DeVonta Smith or something. . I know some people like this stuff, but if Madden actually does it as an “apology”, how little do they think of their fans? Yes, I know you paid $70 for the game, and it’s potentially more in MUT, only for us to delete your favorite save file. You have every right to be upset. So here is an add-on that can let your players do a cool handshake, totally free. We’ll even add a twerk emote for just $4.99. We really love our players. Get out of here with that bullshit.
Like I said earlier, I haven’t played Madden at all in months, but the franchise mode has always been what made me a customer, even though I don’t buy all the games every year . If I lost my 99 overall defensive end Javonte Morant, my 97 overall cornerback Devin Burney, or my 98 overall tight end Allen Winn, each of which I spent weeks developing X-factors, I would have finished. Madden would go straight to the trash can, right next to Gotham Knights and The fall of Babylon. In fact, I wasn’t even affected, and I could still do it. It’s just the right thing to do.
While I may not have been affected, another Deadspin writer DJ Dunson was one of the unfortunate souls whose league was tarnished by the mighty hammer of EA Sports’ incompetence. “I’m pissed. Very, very pissed off,” Dunson said, rage fueling every keyboard press of that phrase. I don’t blame him. According to reports, it wasn’t just online franchises either. Even offline franchises have succumbed to this terrible disaster of corruption. No one who wanted to play the only simulation-style football video game available was safe. All I can offer is my condolences.
Seriously, things aren’t going to get any better if this doesn’t hurt EA’s pockets. Why would they try to improve their product if they know that we as a group are going to continue to buy the game and spend real money instead of play money to buy virtual cards? Stop buying Madden! They clearly don’t care about you, it’s time to stop caring about the game.
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