Re: Unable to load up Madden on EA Play First Play Trial - Stuck on loading screen

Origin ID: jgofframs

I tried running the Madden 21 Trial on PC. I am using the Origin app, I have the EA Play Subscription and I also have no issues running Madden 20. I get two errors at the loading screen. The first is the "unable to connect to EA servers" error and the second is the "you are blocked from accessing onine features" error (Same error as in the screenshot posted above by the previous poster). I have to Alt-Tab out to Task Manager and manually close the Madden process in order to exit the game, since it won't load to the Main Menu. Also, despite never getting to the Main Menu, it is telling me while the game is loading that I only have 9 hours of gameplay left. I guess it is counting the times I've been stuck at the loading screen as "game time" lol. It would be great if this issue could get fixed and if I could get back to 10 hours of game time since I've yet to even browse the Main Menu for a single minute.

@EA_Kent this is atrocious. Look how many people are affected by this bug and you turn a cold shoulder on fixing this since October? Ridiculous.

I'm playing ea play trial on PS5. Same problem as most people that it says ea servers can't be connected, although I can play any other EA game or literally any game online and have 1000 mbps down/1000 mbps up connection.

PLEASE FIX. I have been a loyal EA support but I won't continue to support a company like this if you can't fix an issue affected thousands of customers...

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@krosent7298 wrote:
@EA_Blueberry Hey, sorry for the late response. So all of these steps didn't help. Clearing the system cache, changing DNS, clearing Mac Address, restarting modem/router and launching the game from My Games/Apps. The first time the trial is installed, I get a EA disconnection message and then I get to the main menu but not able to select any of the modes. Once I force close the game and relaunch the game, that's when I'm stuck on the "Showtime!" loading screen and doesn't progress past this.

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@krosent7298 

The team is planning to address this in an upcoming title update. What you're experiencing must be fixed by the development team and we've had trouble locating any workaround fixes in these forums. We don't expect players to wait much longer to get into the Play First Trial for Madden NFL 21. Thank you for your patience!

I’m having the same issue, followed all the steps and nothing. Screen is frozen on “SHOWTIME!” And dims...I use PS4 and the username is StephenG1993. Any and all help would be appreciated 

i have exactly this

Its been 2 months already... How is this still not fixed?

I've got the PS4 version and the PS5 Trial active right now. I can't upgrade to the PS5 version and the trial isn't connecting to the servers. 

On the PC is also not working

Far to little to late from EA as per usual. I won’t be investing in this game now, nor do I think I will bother with any other of your games as you are proving to be more and more unreliable. 

Trial is Still broken. Running down my 10hrs free time and tried everything mentioned. Took 3 Months for EA to even acknowledge a problem.... even with so many having the problem.

PS5 - ID is PSN_STEVE

Last tried 00:30 Feb 1st 

Loads into menu but not able to launch any game option

Please put the fix out.....

• Gamertag/PSN ID
• Platform you play on
• Last time you attempted to launch the game (date & time/timezone)\
  

Gamertag: Bardooley

Platform: PC

Last Login: 1:08 PM EST 2/1/2021

It's good to know. I bought EAPlay back in November. I had the error then and somehow one day it worked and never worked for the rest of the time I had the trial. I instantly cancelled it. Even when it dropped to 39$ I was skeptical about even buying the game then so I held off. I spent an hour of my 10 hour trial trying out different ways. I was about to purchase EAplay again but decided to check out the forums to see if they resolved this issue. I don't want to purchase EA play until they fix this. I'm glad I'm staying out of it. 

I just tried to load the game up 1 minute ago. Still going dark at “warming up” and not moving! Even after the update!!! What a waste of money! Is there any plans to fix this bug or do I just return the game for a lesser cash refund?! 

@EA_Blueberry can you please actually fix this??? Update is out and the trial STILL doesn't work. Is this a joke? Losing customers by the second...

Hey, @Gmballer42 

This was scheduled to be fixed in the February update. Is there any way you can un-install the game and re-install it to see if that has any positive effect? I'm curious if the previous version that's installed is still causing this, unless you installed the game after the latest update. 

@EA_Blueberry I can confirm this is STILL broken, in the exact same way, even after fully reinstalling via Steam. I couldn't even play the free weekend that was offered because of this bug. Absolutely ridiculous.

Hi @EA_Blueberry 

I can confirm that I deleted and reinstalled the game. It still doesn't work. This seems like it should be a priority since it's affecting so many users. Is there any way to push out an incremental update with the fix? It's truly disappointing that this bug has persisted for this long ☹️

I can't even add the Trial to my Origin account anymore, it's disappeared 

Hey @EA_Blueberry , I've been scrolling through the forum and while this start-up problem should've been fixed in the february update, I keep encountering it on my PS5. I can successfully load the game, but in the main menu I'm unable to start any game mode. Deleted the game and did re-installed it but it didn't fix it. And because of the trial period on my account I'm unable to even buy the Madden deluxe version that is on sale right now, because it says I'm the owner of the base game due to the trial. 

This has been going on for months and I keep seeing new people on here with the same problems...it's still not fixed!  I wasted my time keeping track on this forum for updates that haven't solved anything.

There are so many folks with the same issues and EA still hasn't addressed it.  These people are your customers, come on EA!

I am on Xbox Game Pass and did get lucky to try the game out when it was "free to play" for a few days and wow, the optimized version was not impressive at all IMO.  My game impression has nothing this forum and is strictly game play.

EA, you're big disappointment.