Imagine paying $150 for 7 days of early access to Madden NFL 26 and then not getting it. That's the problem right now for millions of irate players who purchased the MVP Bundle on Xbox, including noted Madden aficionado Snoop DO-Double G.
Can’t play madden 26 even though I pre ordered the mvp bundle @EAMaddenNFL @XboxSupport #Madden26 #Madden #Xbox pic.twitter.com/j0s7y7bZ5F
— Justin (@xJustinxs) August 7, 2025
EA acknowledged the problem on X, announcing it was working on a fix:
For our Xbox MVP Bundle owners, we’re aware of an issue some are experiencing where they’re unable to access the game.
— MaddenNFLDirect (@MaddenNFLDirect) August 7, 2025
We’re working closely with Microsoft and plan to resolve this as soon as possible.
Updates will be threaded below as needed!
But then things went from bad to worse. EA and Microsoft got their wires uncrossed, just in time for Xbox players to login and find out that Madden 26 servers had completely crashed. I got booted offline at 2:45 p.m. CT and wasn't able to play for a couple of hours. Things appear to be back to normal now.
It's a cautionary tale about paying extra for early access. There are even special challenges in Ultimate Team for players who log in early, and obviously this will affect their ability to complete them Not everybody is able to take the first day of Madden release off, nor is everybody a content creator that can dedicate hours to this. Heck, we're able to monetize the outage by making content ripping EA Sports, but that's not everybody's reality.
There's been a great deal of debate about games going to a $100 price point. EA announced it wasn't moving its price from $70, but that's likely because huge amounts of its customers are already paying $100 for the early editions of its games.
There will be some make rights, but they come with another problem. The extra rewards are always for Ultimate Team, because that's the mode that drives everything now. What do single player enjoyers of Madden NFL get for their inconvenience? As with so many other aspects of Madden NFL, it looks like they get the shaft. App Trigger will keep you posted on however EA Sports ends up apologizing for this.