Madden 24 early access day has arrived. Players around the world have booted up their Deluxe Edition and gone diving into the game. With nearly every pre-order bonus and Deluxe Edition extra tied to Ultimate Team, those players are the ones predominantly playing the online squad-building mode.
Or at least, players have tried to boot up and play, and those fortunate enough to get in have seen some content missing.
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Server problems
It isn't new for games to have server problems, but it's always surprising when a sports title has day 1 problems that prevent people from reaching the game's store when they are most likely to spend extra cash.
Social media has been flooded with players reporting issues and content creators bemoaning the problem.
For at least two hours after the 8pm ET release players were only able to use the Quick Play game mode. What is worse is that these are Madden's most committed players. Willing to spend the extra money to buy the Deluxe Edition and most likely to buy Ultimate Team packs too. EA simply shot themselves in the foot with this one.
Missing content
That's not the only place the EA team has fallen short of expectations. Ultimate Team is all about building a squad, and each new game starts players from scratch. But not entirely. For those that played MUT late on Madden 23 the Rookie Premiere program offered the chance to earn some cards for the start of Madden 24, specifically the first round picks from the 2023 NFL draft.
players were rightfully expecting those Rookie Premiere cards, rated at a very competitive 84 OVR, to be waiting in their binders when they were able to get into the game. But no. Instead, EA is now "targetting" the start of next week for Rookie Premiere cards according to their own communication via a Good Morning Madden live stream on 14 August.
Delays in MUT content are nothing new, but day 1 delays on content that was planned months ago? That might be a new low for the MUT team.
For all the pre-release hype on the game, it looks like Madden 24 is already off to a poor start.