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.

 

[Treehill23]

Am I missing something or ?
When we were promised the deepest game to date, I didn’t realise that meant just extra guernseys and cutscenes….
I mean, even after that list of features that was published on EB Games and JB, Ross came in here and stated that there’s so much more that wasn’t listed.
Sooooo where is it ?
I get Ultimate Team is one mode that’s on its way (who knows when)
But currently as it stands, Evo 2 still has more game modes seeing as they have a player career
Like what…..
Overall, the graphics looked great from what I’ve seen. Gameplay is still a wait and see because there was far too many glitches and players not knowing what they’re doing to really get an understanding of what it’s gonna look like in the hands of someone good

But anyways, if Ultimate Team is done right, it won’t matter what other modes they have. Just would have been nice for a bit more transparency rather than “Evo 2 sucks, we have way more features”

 

[justlookingaround]

only gripe i've noticed so far is how all the players freeze after a tackle before it cuts to the stoppage

 

[SugarShane]

I understand the fascination with overall player ratings but it's the individual player skill ratings that matter under the hood.
A player rated 85 isn't always going to beat a player rated 83, it's how their individual skills match up against each other.

Tried to explain that about 2 AFL games ago when ratings were a big thing. Ranking your players from 99's down to 60's is almost useless if you're not breaking it down into speed, kicking, handball, ruck, endurance, agility... And then further breaking down kicking into accuracy, distance, set shots, etc.

 

[robertto]

Game looks great. I'm grateful for Ross and BigAnt. this is like absolute best case scenario imo, as long as the game plays aswell as AFL live 1 i will be a happy man.

 

[SugarShane]

Elephant in the room - how would the reactions be if this game was being published by WW? I’m not convinced they’d be this positive.

Well... that's because we'd be getting another game made by WW.

On the other hand though you'd definitely have a lot of people excited about player career.

 

[hawk699]

Hey big ant, game looks incredible good I can’t wait for it but I have questions what is the soundtrack going to be? Thank you

 

[SugarShane]

Will be interesting to see what is rolled out at the public play sessions, whether they lug around dev kits again or if it's a closer to finished build. It's all good to use an early build for a preview session to get hands on and the word out but assuming the play sessions will be in the week or 2 before release, you'd hope we see a more complete version.

 

[Lesnish]

Why is every player stationary at ball ups or throw ins?
Not one player moves a step until the ball is tapped down.

I just played evo 2 and the players at least move around during the bounce.
Granted it was completely randomly chose by the game, but there was also different centre bounce set ups in evo 2 like having a loose man behind the ruckman for the tap back.


Completely dispointed not seeing any kind of centre bounce tactics or the ability to have a "go to" player running past the ruckman for the tap whilst another mid lays a block ect.

On SM-S901E using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[GOTHELIONS16]

Tried to explain that about 2 AFL games ago when ratings were a big thing. Ranking your players from 99's down to 60's is almost useless if you're not breaking it down into speed, kicking, handball, ruck, endurance, agility... And then further breaking down kicking into accuracy, distance, set shots, etc.

So things such as Robbo’s top 50 players, and Lloyd’s top 20 is useless then?

I do know what you’re saying and I get that but I’m not going to rank players for every single attribute, am I? when I’ve done overall ratings in the past I find them useful as a guide when tweaking the specific attributes for each player. It ussually requires a few changes here and there but it turns out to be very helpful for me.

 

[SugarShane]

So things such as Robbo’s top 50 players, and Lloyd’s top 20 is useless then?

I feel like you want me to say no?

Fair shout on the other bit though.

 

[GOTHELIONS16]

Will be interesting to see what is rolled out at the public play sessions, whether they lug around dev kits again or if it's a closer to finished build. It's all good to use an early build for a preview session to get hands on and the word out but assuming the play sessions will be in the week or 2 before release, you'd hope we see a more complete version.

As the earlier dev was brought out tonight. In my mind it wouldn’t make sense to bring out a later one for the play sessions, if they are just going to have to change it again for release. Otherwise they would have had the latest one tonight.

 

[SugarShane]

As the earlier dev was brought out tonight. It would make no sense to bring out a later one for the play sessions, if they are just going to have to change it again for release. Otherwise they would have had the latest one tonight.

The game has to go gold a few weeks before release to allow time for manufacturing. Presumably by this time next week there'll be a "complete" version of the game (minus an impending day one patch of course) that would be the same as what you get on the disc.

 

[GOTHELIONS16]

Didn’t even notice the afl released this 3 hrs ago

 

[Glenferrie Arty Deco]

Game looks really good so far.

My questions would be:
1. Will there be in depth tactics we can choose to use (eg spare man back, sweeper at stoppage, zone or man on man, slingshot half backs, high half forwards etc)?
2. Will the simulation be more realistic than Evo 2, cos playing a season where Mitch McGovern

11

Mitch Mcgovern

Age

29

Ht

190cm

Wt

88kg

Pos.

Def

Career

Season

Last 5

D

10.1

3star

K

7.2

3star

HB

2.9

3star

M

4.6

4star

T

2.2

4star

MG

189.8

3star

D

7.6

2star

K

6.5

3star

HB

1.1

1star

M

3.6

4star

T

1.9

3star

MG

179.6

3star

D

10.8

3star

K

6.8

3star

HB

4.0

3star

M

4.0

4star

T

3.0

5star

MG

218.0

4star

types somehow win the brownlow with 40 touches a week was ridiculous

 

[SugarShane]

Just rewatching the stream, a few small things I noted (again, fully aware this is an early build):

• Don't appear to be able to change shorts independently, whether that's an easy thing to modify in the academy I guess we'll see.
• The score changes the instant the ball crosses the line, would be good to see it wait until the goal signal like TV
• Didn't see much of a wind effect on set shots
• Didn't see a radar, surely it'll be a setting at least. Playing on side view a radar is definitely needed to see up ahead.

Love the way it looks though. Ruckwork looks a little stiff which is odd because it really liked it in Live.

 

[PerfectFooty]

Ah yes like the zero hanger triple video post, now we've gotten the trailer 3 times

 

[Freo16]

I’m loving everything I’ve seen and read so far, obvious tweaks to be made but that’ll come.

The only thing missing for me now is player career, I’m still hoping this is on its way because it does seem like we must still have some unannounced details but it’s looking less likely

 

[pOleK]

Just a suggestion regarding Team Ratings, why not take something useful from the EA games and split the different areas of the ground into their own individual group ratings.

In FIFA for example, it splits the ratings into ATTACK/ MIDFIELD/ DEFENCE. For AFL23 all you’d need to do is change Attack to Forwards to adjust for the lingo and already I feel like you get more flexibility and depth for overall Team Ratings in instead of one number defining each team.

 

[dekani19]

new pies swoop

 

[BubbleBass]

Looks like it might be possible to recruit players who retired or were delisted last year assuming that is the real Shaun Higgins

4

Shaun Higgins

Age

36

Ht

184cm

Wt

89kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

20.4

5star

K

10.6

4star

HB

9.8

5star

M

3.9

4star

T

3.2

5star

G

1.0

4star

D

21.8

5star

K

10.3

4star

HB

11.5

5star

M

2.3

2star

T

3.6

4star

G

0.1

3star

D

12.0

3star

K

7.2

3star

HB

4.8

4star

M

2.8

3star

T

1.8

4star

G

0.6

3star

 

[jdobs95]

Oh man, I didn't think I would ever have to do this, but we need to address the controversy. Let me start by apologizing to jdobs95 you never told me what bar so I couldn't turn up, I needed to find something else to do tonight.

Hahahahah, but yes I was in attendance at the event, I snuck in with the other guys shhhhhh. Thank you to all who attended, everyone I got to spend time with was amazing. I had loads of fun and I hope you guys did too. HKB and I appreciate all the good conversations we had. So you've all seen lots now. It's been great reading all 20 pages or so from tonight, I appreciate hearing all the things you guys thought were cool, as well as the things you have some criticism about and we hear you. I will be monitoring closer than normal over the next few days to read everything that comes out and watch all the content from creators that will go up so we can make sure we onboard as much feedback as possible.

Im sure Ross will come on when he gets some time and make some comments. But I just wanted to jump on thanking all the people who were watching the streams and those who we got to spend some time with.

As for many things, this was not the final product. Ratings are 100% not final, but hey keep up the conversations about them we find them intriguing to read.

I have no choice but to accept your apology

Playing the game on the 8th sounds good though..

 

[Flagmantle Pod]

Why is every player stationary at ball ups or throw ins?
Not one player moves a step until the ball is tapped down.

I just played evo 2 and the players at least move around during the bounce.
Granted it was completely randomly chose by the game, but there was also different centre bounce set ups in evo 2 like having a loose man behind the ruckman for the tap back.


Completely dispointed not seeing any kind of centre bounce tactics or the ability to have a "go to" player running past the ruckman for the tap whilst another mid lays a block ect.View attachment 1636726

On SM-S901E using BigFooty.com mobile app

I know that everyone here wants a realistic football game, but a lot of real life actions would turn out to be video game cheat codes. A player that lays a block for another guy at stoppages? Yeah that’s totally not going to be unstoppable in a video game format

 

[Freo16]

Finally getting a chance to view the stream on something other than a phone

Few things I’ve noticed…
- There seems to be a bit of ground game in terms of after you’ve been tackled you can fight to get the ball out or hold up the ball carrier if you’re doing the tackling (rather than an immediate ball up as the tackle hits the ground in Live 1)

- It looks like you can actually run back through traffic which was impossible to do without getting immediately tackled in Evo 2

- I don’t mind the AFL logo transition as much as others but I’d love it to show the team logo after a goal

 

[Selim]

Thank you, I appreciate your response.

I don’t have a clue, but I also don’t understand why they wouldn’t have wanted to showcase the latest version of the game tonight? If it’s such an early dev, my question is why?

With all respect I just think it has the long road of months and months of patches, same as Cricket 22, written all over it.

when games are showed at events like this they never actually show the latest build, just last month 2k had an event were creators could play the new wwe 2k23 game and it was confirmed that was an early build which had a lot of bugs and all the ratings were a mess but the final product came out much better, thats just how it is with the gaming world especially lately

 

[netslave]

better look at player stats screen: