Here is my theory:

1) EA wants you to buy Madden 12 for the xBox 360.

2) They send an update to Madden 11 that disables frequent online players of Madden 11.

3) This causes people to buy Madden 12 because Madden 11 is basically broken.

4) In the mean time, it frees up their server space so they can devote it to their latest first person shooter game.

5) All this can be plausibly denied because not all users are shut down and EA is still officially offering online play.

They should just come out and say they are shutting down Madden 11 instead of playing games with their customers.

After nearly a month of complaints .... and nothing but 2 BS replies of remove your hard drive (I dont even have an external drive) or reset the xbox servers to 10/26/1985 and make sure your flux capacitor is fully charge. All EA is doing is replying after 3 weeks ... here try this thing this is complete BS and it will be another 3 weeks of "testing" that "solution" before we think about doing anything else ... typical stall / F'off tatic.

I am contacting the Ohio Attorney General and filing a complaint. I will also file a complaint with the BBB and see what I can do with consumer reports. I suggest that everyone else does the same.

Also, I am submitting a complaint to my local Cleveland Media Outlet "5 on your side" ... maybe they will pick up the story of how a major video game producer basically steals, cheats and commits fraud to keep their sales up.

I bought this game in Feb of 2011 and after just 8 months ... they conveniently release a patch that shuts out 1000s and 1000s of users from playing online .... I would think twice on what games I buy this xmas.

If you agree and support these actions ... please repost this on other forums .... this is no longer just about fixing madden 11 ... its about the general practices of the gaming industry that thinks it can sell you "online gaming" and then "break it" when they want to make more money. We need to stop this before it gets out of hand.

Have they not read all of our posts or what??? Everything except the port reference has been mentioned and tried by all of us already. Yet, I just tried everything again except calling my ISP about the ports and that's because I do not have phone service at the moment. Still is not working. I will try to call my ISP, but I am wondering if anyone has had any luck with this option yet?

Good luck spooner32!

Spooner32 let me know if I can help your case in any way. I would be happy to assist you if at all possible.

I just downloaded the update and it looks like we're back up and running.

Nice work guys.

How do you download the update?

And you can play Madden 11 online, again?

Thank Gawd, this issue has finally been resolved.

CASE CLOSED.

[b]I got my xbox back from service (took over two weeks) for them to say nothing was wrong. I guess it turns out EA was lying like everyone has suspected. Anyway, with some luck, I managed to play about 5 games over the course of 24 hours...until now!

BACK TO THE LOADING SCREEN FREEZE!!!

Anyone still having issues??? I am about to throw my xbox out the window...

It was working for a few days over the weekend but we are back to the load freezing screen as of tonight.

at least a got to play a total of 4 games. Totally worth a month of complaining ....

I will have to refer everyone to the episode of southpark: crack baby athletic association. It does an excellent job spoofing EA Sports.

This must be their idea of a sick joke?

Lets see how long we can torture people before they have to buy madden 12....

Everyone, keep posting...the more the better!

EA has locked the players out again. Please file BBB complaints to get this issue resolved. The loading screen freeze is just a marketing ploy from EA.

After using the chat service with EA, they disconnected my chat when I directed them to this forum. Thanks for the great customer service EA.

Filing a BBB complaint right now!

Come on guys keep filing the complaints, EA rep informed me tonight that there would be no patch as this is an "old game" and they are only offering support on new titles.

what a joke