BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) – Josh Allen is the first Buffalo Bills player to be featured on the cover of the Madden video game franchise. He called it “a childhood dream come true.”
The long-rumored Madden 24 cover was confirmed Wednesday in a reveal from EA Sports. But there’s a problem with the cover image.
Madden released two versions of the video game cover. The Standard Edition ($69.99) features a photo of Allen looking down with his hands on his shoulder pads, in a classic pre-game pose. The Deluxe Edition – which offers three-day early access, 4,600 Madden points and an “AKA player item” for a $30 upcharge – depicts Allen celebrating with fans after jumping into the stands.
Madden appears most proud of the Deluxe Edition photo, featuring it in their initial tweet of the cover. But if you zoom in, you’ll notice an error.
Look closely at Allen’s face. One of the bars of his facemask appears cut off.
(Yes, this is real – check out Madden’s original tweet.)
The error is curious because Allen does not typically wear a facemask with a third horizontal bar, which appears partially erased in the photo. He opts for only top and bottom horizontal bars, along with a small horizontal piece on the edge.
Here’s hoping EA Sports hasn’t sent the images off the printers just yet. They appear aware of the error: an updated version that erased part of Allen’s facemask was used as their Facebook cover photo around 4:30 p.m., and the corrected version was used in subsequent promotional social media posts.
If a limited run of Madden games are produced with the glitch cover, perhaps they’ll become valuable collectables, like baseball error cards.
But as far as Bills Mafia is concerned, hopefully this glitch is the extent of any “Madden Curse.”
