Madden NFL 23 developer EA Tiburon has delivered its previously announced fix for the server glitch that corrupted franchise save files. The fix is, as previously confirmed, only for a very limited number of Madden NFL 23 players who were impacted by the save file corruption. All other Madden NFL 23 players that experienced the glitch are confirmed to have lost their save files forever. This is, unfortunately, the full extent of EA Tiburon's ability to solve the problem.
In December, Madden NFL 23 was having some strange server issues. Players trying to access their franchises were being sent a database storage error that prevented them from playing. EA Tiburon issued a statement acknowledging the issue and saying it would be investigated. On December 28, EA Tiburon issued a "fix" that is now confirmed to have led to serious consequences. Madden NFL 23 players that accessed Connected Franchise Mode during this 10-hour window on December 28 are confirmed to be dealing with this corruption issue.
A follow-up statement from EA Tiburon had unfortunate news for Madden NFL 23 players that were impacted by the corruption issue. It wasn't fixable. There was no way for EA Tiburon to fix the save files that had been corrupted. The only option it had was to replace corrupted save files with save files that had been protected server-side, but very few of these backups existed. Those are the backups EA Tiburon has now delivered.
Madden NFL 23 players that have been dealing with the corrupted franchise save files should now be able to check and see if they've been saved or if they'll have to start their franchise over. EA notes that a Week 17 "Play Now" Live roster launched last week with another Wild Card update out now that would serve a solid launching point. To repeat, Madden NFL 23 players who haven't had their franchise save files fixed by now will never have it fixed. There's nothing more to be done.
EA Tiburon, for its part, is extremely apologetic. Madden NFL executive producer Seann Graddy explained in an email to players that "This should not have happened." A waterfall of problems occurred that not only corrupted live saves, but also deleted most backups. While the issues have since been resolved, that doesn't help impacted players much.
As a token of its apology, EA Tiburon says it will be delivering invites to Madden NFL 24's closed beta on either PS5 or Xbox Series X/S to all impacted Madden NFL 23 players. Further, players that lost progress will receive a 50% discount for Madden NFL 24. Finally, EA Tiburon say it's currently working on Commissioner Tools for future franchise modes, which will allow robust customization options to players, so even if they lose or restart their franchises they can make a custom league to their wants and needs. It's not a fixed save file, but it's something.
Madden NFL 23 is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.