EA Play and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members recently got their first taste of the newest entry to EA Sports's mega-popular football franchise, Madden NFL 22. Much like other titles on EA's subscription service, the newest entry in the long-running franchise was released for early access to paid members this week. Now, after issues related to players' individual countdown timers and ability to access the game, EA has announced it will be extending Madden NFL 22's early access window.

Madden NFL 22 is scheduled to release later this week. Madden NFL 22's early access opened up on August 12 and is available for all EA Play and Game Pass Ultimate players to play for up to 10 hours before the game's release on August 20. However, in light of reports of playtime countdowns continuing even after players had exited the game, EA officially made an announcement about the game's free trial.

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On the MaddenNFLDirect Twitter, the publisher announced that it will be officially extending the Early Access Trial for Madden NFL 22. Existing EA Play and Game Pass Ultimate members will have an unlimited amount of time to play the upcoming title until 11:59 PM ET on Tuesday, August 17 – the early release date for the game's MVP and Deluxe Edition pre-orders. No mention was made to the status of the trial for players on PlayStation, an issue brought up by many players in replies to the announcement.

EA also offered alternative workarounds within its announcement for players still struggling with the countdown-related issue. The post's suggestions included hardware-related fixes for the timer continuing to tick, such as players rebooting the console using the Xbox's menu after playing Madden NFL 22. EA's workaround specifically states that powering down the console will not stop the countdown timer from ticking if the system is in "Instant On" mode, suggesting that players restart their consoles to solve the issue. EA is no stranger to running into these kinds of issues in past games with similar problems in Madden NFL 21 related to player sign-ins.

The Madden franchise has often been criticized for a lack of significant changes in the yearly titles, a trend that EA is hoping to buck with the upcoming title. The sports game juggernaut has announced a slew of updates coming to Madden NFL 22's franchise mode, including an increased focus on the coaching and scouting aspects of the popular game mode. EA also mentioned tweaks to other popular game modes like the "Face of the Franchise" story mode and the always-popular "Madden Ultimate Team." The publisher is pushing this year's title as a true upgrade to the Madden NFL experience, and fans will have plenty to look forward to upon the game's release.

Madden NFL 22 is scheduled to release on August 20 for PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

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