Madden 23 players mourn lost teams as bug breaks 60% of affected saves

techradar.com:

Grim news for Madden 23 fans: a recent server error has caused players to lose access to their online saves in the extremely popular Franchise Mode.

Between December 28 and December 29, players who logged into Franchise leagues found their data corrupted due to a storage issue on EA’s Madden 23 servers. Online Franchise Mode, Connected Franchise Mode, and Face of the Franchise saves were all corrupted during this time. 

«We are sorry that 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 on a fix to restore some files via a backup as soon as possible. However, not all affected leagues can be restored. The team is currently projecting around 40% of leagues to be recovered. We will communicate an updated timeline next week around the potential restoration of save files from a backup.»

EA says that is you logged in between 2.45pm EST, December 28 and 12.45 EST, December 29 they you should «start a new franchise». 

Franchise is an extremely popular mode where you manage teams over multiple seasons in a long campaign. It captures the long-form NFL experience and offers a major draw to the Madden games beyond simply providing a decent game of football. Over the course of multiple seasons, players form meaningful connections with their teams. It’s one thing to be a Chicago Bears fan, but it’s another to lovingly curate your own version of the team over dozens of hours in the context of Madden 23's newfound realism. 

As you might expect, fans have strongly reacted to losing their beloved saves. 

«Between grad school and work, I don't have much time to play,» Hank1581 wrote on Reddit(opens in new tab). «I've spent months on this franchise. Madden