FAIL – MADDEN 17 EA ACCESS FREE TRIAL – Vince Russo's The Brand

Well, I would love to tell you how the game is. I wish I could tell you my Cowboys look amazing or the new features are just killing it. I wish I could tell you that I’ve been playing since I got home from work.

Those would all be lies. Instead, Xbox and EA can burn in hell. Apparently, if you PREORDER the $60 (or more) game, and then go to the $30 EA Access you paid for and follow the instructions you get told “YOU’RE TOO EARLY.” WTF?

Let’s go through this again to see if you can make sense of the steps

Pre-download the game so it’s ready to play
Go to EA Access, click Madden 17
Follow EA Access Madden 17 link to the Xbox store
Click Free Trial

That seems simple, right? WRONG! There is no Free Trial, just play now, which tells me I am too early and I can play the game Monday August 22nd at 11 PM CST.

I go to EA for support. I go through all 4 steps. I’m finally at the end…here’s the click that gets me help! Instead I get HOW WOULD YOU LIKE TO CONTACT US? Then no choices aside from back, which as you probably guess goes back to the previous page.

Now I call Xbox. The customer service rep says that’s an EA issue and gives me their number, which is disconnected. Then he stops talking, so after saying hello a few times I hang up. Then I go to Twitter to check. 2 hours ago they were working on it (latest update). 5 hours ago they were working on it. 9 HOURS AGO THEY WERE WORKING ON IT!!!!

For a billion dollar company that has an exclusive license for the most popular sport in the United States…a company that has been making Madden for almost 30 years…they cannot figure out how to make a working game.

Here’s the kicker: I bought the digital version because EA led me to believe that was the way to play early. I could have bought a copy on Monday night and resold it next year to get Madden 18 cheaper, but EA made it SEEM like I had to have EA Access and the digital Madden 17. The ironic part is that I cannot play it early because I did what they wanted! HA!

So, while I would love to tell you about how great the investment in EA Access was or how amazing the game is, I cannot. All I can tell you is to never waste your money on either. Thanks EA. Thanks Microsoft. Thanks Xbox. It may be time for a PS4 and some NBA 2K17.