Today, many sports gamers were stoked to kick off Early Access for the new Madden NFL 26 game. Early Access was set to begin today, August 7, 2025, for those who bought either the Deluxe Edition of the game or the top-tier MVP Bundle. However, many were, and still are, left frustrated and with little to no gameplay. Servers were giving out error messages today that informed them they didn’t own the game, when in fact, they did.

Madden 26 Kicks Off Early Access

The first message on Madden NFL Direct’s X was not an exciting one for most who were trying to load their game for today’s Early Access launch day. The majority of those who had purchased one of the two higher tiers of the base game of Madden 26 were met with errors saying they did not own the game. For the few who could get in, they were met with the issue that the above-mentioned social media account had to address, which was a”visual issue”. This “visual issue” impacted those when opening fantasy packs, and the only fix was to restart the entire game or the challenge they were on.

Madden 26 Servers Are Still Down

While the issue, which claimed many of its users did not own the game and had little to no access, was addressed on X earlier today, the servers are currently still down. It was announced that the company was working with Microsoft to plan a resolution for this issue.

Ongoing Server Maintenance

Approximately at 3:45 pm ET, another tweet was released to announce sudden server maintenance, scheduled to start at 4 pm ET. All online modes and various aspects of the game are still down for maintenance at this time. Whether you spent the $99.99 or the $149.99 for a higher tier of the game, extra in-game assets, and Early Access, most players have not had much of an experience so far with Madden NFL 26‘s Early Access day launch.