Multiplat AFL 23 - PS/Steam Releasing May 4, Xbox TBC

[Dannnnnnnnnn]

WHEN CAN I PLAY? READ BELOW:

• PlayStation (Physical): Thursday 4 May
• PlayStation (Digital): 8:01am AEST Thursday 4 May
• Steam: Currently 8:01am AEST Thursday 4 May, may be moved to 12:01am AEST
• Xbox (Digital or Physical): TO BE CONFIRMED, unlikely to be 4 May

Spoiler: Specific Big Ant quotes about the release:

Those that pre-ordered PS versions will be able to play on Thursday, disks will have already been mailed by retailers, they will also be available in-store.

Steam will also be available Thursday.

Stating the obvious, we are still having issues with XBox.

Seriously, anyone that looks hard knows there’s issues - why do you think there are so many exclusives for a particular platform that are not marked as exclusive, but are only on that platform.

If I took that road, life would have been a lot easier.

Xbox digital and retail will release at the same time - that is not a decision we get to make.

It applies now and I will no doubt pay a price.

Spoiler: Other Quotes

Re: commentary team

Spoiler: Other Quotes

Hamish is still there, Daisy didn't make it into the final version of the game.

We added Gary and increased the workload of Harf.

Re: game availability/release dates

I can never give 100% guarantee about anything in the future, but as it stands today, the statement I am prepared to make it that all stock that is at retailers on 4 May will be available for sale.

As to the amount that will be there for sale, and whether it is enough, that is a question I cannot answer.

It will be made digitally available on the various platform holder electronic stores.

Clarifying, the game will not release prior to 4 May 2023.

I am vague as there is one platform that has had sufficient stock at retailers and the other has not, and I cannot name them (contractual reasons).

The game will not be further delayed because of the numbers of units in stock.

Re: Steam listing

I've already put in a request for the screenshots to be replaced with current ones, they'll probably only be there for a day.

As much as the feedback has generally been positive, these are old, meant to be placeholder only and were not meant to go live.

Re: playing lists

All playing lists are accurate for the 2023 season.

Re: content creator footage

This is all prior to day one patch (as some have noted updates like numbers etc are apparent)

Re: Career mode

A head's up on Career mode.

At the AFL 23 Launch night I mentioned the non-team based Individual Career Mode in an interview with Dean (Twistie3). As alluded to at that same event, we were working with the AFL and AFLPA to include as many past legends in the game as possible.

The great news is that we have received approval for far more AFL legends than were previously envisaged, but this has meant that we had to make the tough decision to divert resources away from the Individual Career mode development. The individual Career Mode function will not make it into AFL 23, Career Mode will be entirely team based. I expect this mode to be include in future iterations of the game.

Re: microtransactions

You do not have to make purchases, things can be earned.

Re: general development

So fundamentally flawed, in so many ways, it’s bananas.

We are doing AFL as it’s a passion project, without us doing it there would not be one being made.

So much more upside with making games that are played internationally, let alone one that will not even be played in every state in this country.

 

[Ambrose Burnside]

I would imagine that when you start a career those player attributes will ignore any updates. You would need to start a new career to start with the updated ratings.

And season mode too?

 

[Bianconeri]

Been some talk about player stats updating throughout the year thanks to Champion Data, which is cool and all, but I think our own performance should also influence stats.

I'm going to be playing as the Eagles, so they'll have some of the lowest stats in the game, if not the lowest. Gonna be pretty unrealistic if I have them on the top of the ladder (yay easy difficulty) but their stats keep dropping further throughout the year because of the Eagles real world performances.

"Nic Nat tearing the comp apart, certain to add a fourth AA to his collection, but because he's been injured all year in the real world we're going to lower his stats because Champion Data says so" - that sort of thing. Should still be an element of player-driven fantasy to the whole thing too.

It’s likely the ratings won’t update mid save

 

[BigAntStudios]

Cricket 22 had minor gameplay tweaks and some new features.

Afl 23 is a brand new game built from the ground up. Saying it has 5x the budget is propaganda really - ultimately meaningless unless it had 5x the budget of the original Don Bradman cricket.

Let's see the afl 25 budget vs cricket 26. I'd imagine fairly similar

Our posts crossed. Not sure it's propaganda if true.

AFL 23 is a brand new game, 100%, despite people calling it a "sequel" because it fits their insane, inane arguments.

Cricket 24 has a pretty big budget, there's a lot of content - that's where most of the budget goes. Won't get to AFL 23 but won't be too far away. Since I sold the company to Nacon we have much higher budgets and 50% more staff.

 

[robertto]

And I think it's pretty much been mentioned already but a lot of the menus and UI are looking quite boring and bland. Just a huge downgrade from Evo 2.
View attachment 1673956

Do not understand this comment at all. I think Big ants UI is and always has punched way above their weight going back to AFL live. I think the presentation and menus of afl23 look slick as hell.

 

[Michaels]

Please don't nuke Richmond's stats just yet.

Just give me 1 week of them still as a 85-90 rated team!

 

[BigAntStudios]

Do not understand this comment at all. I think Big ants UI is and always has punched way above their weight going back to AFL live. I think the presentation and menus of afl23 look slick as hell.

The best UI we have ever done in any game was AFL Live.

This UI starts with a real bang and the clean, simple look is by design, not lack of budget/thought - clear concise, gets the job done. First thing I do in games/Windows is turn off all of the animation, get me to where I want to be ASAP.

 

[BigAntStudios]

Here are the videos I just posted.

7 Tidbits of info

Management Career deep dive

Season Mode

enjoy!

Every time I scroll past any page on this thread I think I'm on a JB HI FI sales page!

 

[Dannnnnnnnnn]

Reasonably happy with most of the gameplay I've seen. It looks a clear step up from what's come before; enough for me to preorder the game. Looking forward to it. My two remaining concerns from what I've seen are the marking contests (where positioning/animations don't really seem to have much bearing on who actually comes away with the ball) and player positioning/running patterns, as too often in the footage there were massive clumps of free players (particularly on the wings).

I'm not too surprised by it - from the outside looking in, with very little game dev knowledge, I suspect these are probably the hardest parts of the sport to get right in a game. I just hope it's done well enough to not be frustrating to play.

 

[RG16]

Any idea how many seasons Management Mode can go for Ross? Could I essentially draft a rookie and see out their whole 16+ years career?

 

[Michaels]

Eery time I scroll past any page on this thread I think I'm on a JB HI FI sales page!

I hope that's a good thing

I was reasonably happy with those thumbnails given I haven't done many ha ha.

Looking forward to some fresh gameplay footage in the coming days too, really enjoyed what I played last week though!

 

[BRAB]

BigAntStudios did you manage to catch everyone’s positive reactions to the gameplay footage yesterday before the thread moved into conversations about John Howard and career mode?

 

[jonathons11]

Leading disposal getters worries me a bit here.
Wouldn't have thought the top 4 should be anywhere near it.



No training, scouting, staff/facility/money management, upgrades, season objectives.
Seemingly no inbox for messages about anything.
As someone who only plays sports games for the management career side and mainly simulates the games this doesn't fill me with hope.

Hopefully there will be improvements on the final build but doubt they would release this version a week out just for the final version to be completely different, would mean there was no point releasing this at all.
Never bought an AFL game before and doesn't seem like this one is targeted to me, which is fine I guess. I'm obviously the minority

 

[BRAB]

Leading disposal getters worries me a bit here.
Wouldn't have thought the top 4 should be anywhere near it.

View attachment 1674770

No training, scouting, staff/facility/money management, upgrades, season objectives.
Seemingly no inbox for messages about anything.
As someone who only plays sports games for the management career side and mainly simulates the games this doesn't fill me with hope.

Hopefully there will be improvements on the final build but doubt they would release this version a week out just for the final version to be completely different, would mean there was no point releasing this at all.
Never bought an AFL game before and doesn't seem like this one is targeted to me.

There’s an AFL management game on steam that is apparently pretty good. Might be worth looking at

 

[GOTHELIONS16]

Cricket 22 had minor gameplay tweaks and some new features.

Afl 23 is a brand new game built from the ground up. Saying it has 5x the budget is propaganda really - ultimately meaningless unless it had 5x the budget of the original Don Bradman cricket.

Let's see the afl 25 budget vs cricket 26. I'd imagine fairly similar

if you put it that way then AFL23 will have more than 5x the budget of Cricket 22 then. And 5x the budget of Don Bradman Cricket. Ross said AFL23 has five times the budget of any game they’ve done before.

 

[Xtreme]

A few more sleeps to go (and a lil extra time.e for those of us going digital)

FOOOOOOOTYS back in video game form.

I should have Hawthorn as premiers by Sunday

 

[UAWM]

ffs enough of this "it's only a small dev team... you should be grateful" s**t.

It's a product, an $80 product at that. When you spend more or less 4 hours worth of labour on any product by virtue of paying for said product you are entitled to level your constructive criticism on the producers, which in this case is Big Ant Studios. Criticism is not harassment. Let me say that again, criticising the content of a game is not harassment. When you sell a video game for $80, that product is going to be judged accordingly.

Let me simplify it for you, I see a banana at the local independent supermarket and it looks alright on the outside so I buy it, take it home only to find when I open it that it is completely rotten inside. Should I just accept this because it's small supermarket chain? After all, I should be grateful that I'm even getting the opportunity to buy a banana in the first place.

I hope that illustrates how shallow that line of reasoning is. Not to mention it is that same mindset that is actually holding AFL video games back by accepting mediocrity.

I have the upmost respect for BigAnt and Ross especially, doesn't mean I have to pretend that everything in the game is perfect and that it is the greatest game of all time.

I'm all for debating but this has got to be one of the worst possible options for a reply you could've thought of.. A Supermarket chain? The difference here is that you have many.. many options to buy different banannas at different stores and even at this same "small supermarket chain". We don't have that option with AFL Games. We can't just say, Oh i don't like this game and go to another store and buy a different game. This is it for us, and it's a damn good product in my opinion. Fun is subjective, what I enjoy you might not and that's fine

Criticism is not harrasement, not sure why you're making a point from this and it wasn't even mentioned, Criticise all you'd like but keep in mind, this is the only banana you're going to get. You can't go and buy a cheaper one. To the point of it costing $80 also, Big Ant can well charge whatever they like for this game, why? Because once again, it's the only option we have as an up to date AFL Game. They have a monopoly on this and could charge $150 if they wanted to.

 

[UAWM]

For the people wanting a more in depth Management mode or similar check out Premiership Coach 2011, it has literally everything you could ask for, Draft, Budget, Salary, contracts, training, reports, injuries, everything. It's a great game

 

[DaveM303]

(and a lil extra time.e for those of us going digital)

Wait why?

 

[dancdarocker]

Is the game releasing on PS Store at midnight Thursday or morning? Thinking of cancelling preorder and then downloading online.

 

[Juicison]

For the people wanting a more in depth Management mode or similar check out Premiership Coach 2011, it has literally everything you could ask for, Draft, Budget, Salary, contracts, training, reports, injuries, everything. It's a great game

I loved that game. Is it even still possible to get it anymore?

 

[dont argue 04]

Wait why?

12.01 download

 

[DaveM303]

12.01 download

Oh right. Well anyone buying a physical copy will have to wait until stores open in the morning so DIGITAL SUPERIORITY BABYYYYYYYYY

 

[Cummdog3000]

12.01 download

(Legitimately asking)00:01 or 12:01. People have been mentioning random time zones for digital release lmao

 

[carn tigez]

Our posts crossed. Not sure it's propaganda if true.

AFL 23 is a brand new game, 100%, despite people calling it a "sequel" because it fits their insane, inane arguments.

Cricket 24 has a pretty big budget, there's a lot of content - that's where most of the budget goes. Won't get to AFL 23 but won't be too far away. Since I sold the company to Nacon we have much higher budgets and 50% more staff.

Fair enough. I probably was less referring to your post/comment re budget as propaganda and more people referencing it as meaning the AFL game will be Big Ant's biggest game ever. As it kind of ignores inflation + the fact that most other Big Ant games have had further iterations.

I do want to be clear that I have high hopes/expectations for this game and have a lot of faith in Big Ant to deliver quality where it matters. I just see the need to temper expectations in certain areas at times.

While I've got you Ross - what are your thoughts on the ratings differences between teams and players? Is there any pressure from afl clubs or the league to not have huge differences between afl listed teams and players? Does it feel very different playing against a North, hawthorn, West Coast or (Richmond )? Or is it much the same?

 

[cottoneyeYeo]

do you think that means it'll be a 10:01 release perth time