Madden NFL 23 PS5 PlayStation 5 PS4 Franchise Mode Save Files 1

EA Sports has lost the progress of a large number of Franchise mode save files in Madden NFL 23. While it’s possible to play the game entirely offline, it’s recommended you take advantage of the publisher’s servers in order to speed up certain activities, like simulating games. You can, of course, also invite your friends and family to participate in your league if you choose to play online.

But on 26th December, 2022, in the aftermath of Christmas, the publisher responded to connection complaints from users regarding the latest game’s Franchise mode. It subsequently revealed on 28th December, 2022 that the problems had been resolved, and fans could play “without issue”. Except, as it turns out, many couldn’t continue playing, as their progress had been corrupted.

Ultimately, the publisher has laid the blame at the feet of a “data storage issue”, and it’s estimating that it can only recover around 40 per cent of the files affected. Now, to be clear, if you didn’t try to play your Franchise between 2:45PM EST on Wednesday, 28th December and 12:45PM EST on Thursday, 29th December, then you should be fine. If you did, however, you may be out of luck.

Franchise mode is obviously a massively important part of the Madden NFL 23 experience, and because of all the unique permutations that can occur in a single playthrough, it’s effectively impossible to recreate the same experience twice. Players pour hundreds of hours into the mode, so obviously this will prove a bitter pill to swallow.

Mistakes do happen, and at the very least EA Sports is being fairly open and honest about what occurred in this instance. But with fans investing so much personal time and energy into Franchise mode, it’s clearly a disaster what occurred here.

[source twitter.com, via twitter.com, answers.ea.com, arstechnica.com]