[Updated: Aug 30] Madden NFL 22 franchise mode desync & custom playbook glitch issues acknowledged (workarounds inside)

New updates are being added at the bottom of this story…….

Original story (published on August 24, 2021) follows:

Madden 22 was released just days ago on 20 August 2021 and players are unfortunately already running into issues, one of them being a Franchise Mode desync glitch that affects their final score.

This occurs on Franchise saves that were set up as offline and doesn’t seem to affect online saves stored in the cloud. The glitch causes players to lose games they’ve already played.

I’m doing a fantasy draft franchise with 3 other users. I uploaded a draft class and that’s when all the problems started. The desync bug happened, then I my PSN got blacklisted from my team, had to create a new PSN, join as an owner and then retire for the blacklist to go away.
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So playing in a CFM with 32 users and 5 times in a row we get desynced for game one then another user says gotta be an owner and it let’s you play…yeah it worked but why EA ??
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The desync occurs quite frequently too and causes a player to get booted along with their friends. Players have reportedly already tried basic workarounds like restarting the game, system, and the internet, to no avail.

Thankfully, EA Help has acknowledged the Madden NFL 22 franchise mode desync issue saying that they are aware of the error and that their game team is working on it at the moment.

In the meantime, you are free to try out a user-suggested workaround that has helped many.

If you are using a ‘Coach’ it does not work. You must ‘retire’ and create a new character and make an ‘Owner’. If you are using an owner the desync error does not occur. I tried it!
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As if the franchise mode desync issue isn’t enough of a bother already, several Madden 22 players are also facing trouble creating custom playbooks in the front end outside of Franchise and during a match itself.

When I create the custom coach, I can choose the playbook I want to use, however there doesn’t appear to be an option once I’m inside of the Franchise to change my schemes and playbooks?
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Do we know why EA gatekeeps certain formations & sets from the various concept playbooks (Run N’ Gun, Spread, West Coast, etc.) when it comes to creating a custom playbook?
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This glitch has been acknowledged as well. EA Support on Twitter says that the game team is aware of the problem and is working on a fix as a ‘matter of urgency.’

An ETA wasn’t given out but a workaround has been provided. Just try changing to default playbooks and/or All-Pro difficulty and see if that works for you.

01:38 pm (IST): EA has confirmed that it’ll fix the desync issues in Franchise mode in the first Title Update that’s “coming soon”. Apart from that, they’ve shared workarounds via an official blog post:

8/24/2021 7:00PM ET Update: The Franchise team has identified the cause of a desync that is impacting some players in head-to-head Franchise play and is working to address this issue in the first Title Update, coming soon. Regarding the head-to-head desync, if either player has a scenario-driven coach goal, a desync may occur. While the dev team is working to address the issue, players impacted can keep playing by avoiding scenarios. For players with leagues that are experiencing the desync, you can advance the week and let that game get simmed, which will clear the goal, and then avoid scenarios until a fix is deployed. We know that neither of these workarounds is optimal and are working as fast as we can to fix these issues in the upcoming Title Update.

11:26 am (IST): MaddenNFLDirect now says that today’s server maintenance will come with some change to address the desync issue in head-to-head Franchise games.

11:48 am (IST): Another day and another set of unfortunate news from EA as now, it is coming to light that while the issue is still under investigation, it is yet to be resolved, at least according to a community manager.

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