A particularly nasty glitch in Madden NFL 23's Connected Franchise Mode (CFM) appears to have irretrievably destroyed many players' CFM save files. After investigating the mode's connectivity issues last week, EA fixed the problem and tweeted that users could "play CFM without problems" (opens in new tab). However, players who tried to log in during the 22-hour period between that "fix" and 12:45 AM EST (9:45 AM GMT) had their save data blown by a bug still lurking in the system. Players who did not log in during that time period should not have any problems.

According to EA (opens in new tab) (via Ars Technica (opens in new tab)), they are working to restore players' corrupted save data from backups, but "the team currently estimates that about 40% of the league will recover." Several Reddit users (opens in new tab) have told stories of franchises that have lost more than 30 players due to the glitch.

"Three online franchises I play for were lost," said user gregtime92 (opens in new tab). This is beyond ridiculous." Another, notaclevernam3 (opens in new tab), said, "We are on our seventh madden and have real friendships for our league [...]. And it just hurts. We are still in shock and trying to find a way to move forward." Similar stories have been repeated many times in the Madden subreddit, and that's just a small sample of the entire community.

If your save has become corrupted, EA "encourages you to start a new franchise" now that "the mode is up and running" and logging into it no longer carries the risk of obliterating your franchise save file. Player reaction to Madden NFL 23 is only 47% positive out of over 2000 Steam reviews (open in new tab) as of this writing, and the fact that EA has literally told fans that it is no longer safe to log in will only increase the frustration! .

"Madden's" "Connected Franchise Mode" has been a staple of the series since its inclusion in the inexplicably named "Madden NFL 25" game released in 2013. Most importantly, it has allowed players to rise through the ranks and become NFL Hall of Famers while flaunting their successes in front of their friends playing the same mode. It is a painful reminder that many of the game's careers and rivals have now been irretrievably lost.

We have contacted EA to find out why there are so few recoverable saves.