Electronic Arts marked the end of 2022 with an incident involving Madden NFL 23 player data. If users logged into the game mode at the wrong time, they lost their saves.
Around 60% of the data was lost irretrievably, which resulted in widespread outrage. Madden NFL has not been running at its best on PC for years, but Madden NFL 23 surprised even veteran players.
Some naively assumed things could not get any worse. However, around December 30–31, Madden NFL 23 stopped launching on PC on Steam. Upon launch, the game crashes or Steam gets stuck in an infinite launching loop, showing no error dialogs.
It is still unknown what exactly happened to the PC version of Madden NFL 23. The issue has affected longtime players and new buyers alike. At the same time, some players have managed to retain access for some reason.