Given the history of the series, it’s unsurprising that Madden 23 players were left devastated after a glitch corrupted over 60% of their saved games. On February 28th, the Madden developer, EA Sports, released a patch that seemed to alleviate the issues associated with the game’s “mulence” feature. Unfortunately, many players awoke a few days later to find their teams, created with an immense amount of effort and dedication, had been corrupted and lost forever.
Maddens 23 players, some of which had been playing for months, are now mourning the loss of the virtual teams that they built. Those affected by the bug have had to start from scratch, erasing all of the progress that they painstakingly crafted by training and designing their perfect squad.
Players were quick to express their grievances regarding this unfortunate incident, with discussion forums and social media accounts filling up with complaints. Players even began organizing to voice their discontent, with some even uninstalling the game in a “virtual protest.”
So what caused this bug, and what’s being done to address it? EA Sports quickly identified the cause of the error, which was a failure to properly address the “mulence” feature. Unfortunately, it appears that the only fix that’s been offered so far is to remove and reinstall the game, which may result in even more lost data.
EA Sports has stated that it is “continuing to work on additional improvements” to the game, but has not provided any public details of what those might entail. In the meantime, however, many players are considering forgoing Madden 23 until the issues are fixed and the data is properly secured.
This glitch has been an unfortunate reminder of how fragile virtual environments can be, and how differently our digital experiences can end up than what we initially intended. For now, players continue to patiently wait for EA Sports to address this issue and release a patch that can protect the hard work being put into the popular game.
