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.

 

[Gibbke]

Maybe a 'get your last name in the game's commentary list'?

Mine got on there in AFL 360, voiced by Dennis. Sounded like he was announcing a pr0n star...

 

[Treehill23]

So good that you’d like to share it with us all at Bigfooty because we absolutely won’t share it with anyone else ?
BigAntStudios

 

[Mootsy]

 

[SugarShane]

Been playing AFL1 again since getting the updated rosters. One small thing I'd like to change that the WW ones had, was the option to change what the clock shows, eg. if you're playing 5 minute quarters, let me have the option of a real time clock instead of an accelerated 20 minute clock.

 

[jon0011]

I NEED SOMETHING TO KEEP ME GOING.

Just got AFL Evo 2 so I have something to do while being forced to take annual leave.

 

[jdobs95]

I NEED SOMETHING TO KEEP ME GOING.

Just got AFL Evo 2 so I have something to do while being forced to take annual leave.

Sorry to hear

 

[rlm42]

Can we have a game mode just around the world goal shooting in online?

 

[Moe B]

Like fifa, the new afl game should have a pro clubs type mode, anyone know if that's a chance?

 

[DNAngel]

Great news this. Big Any Studios have been making some pretty solid games of late. AO Tennis 2 is brilliant.

The Evolution games didn't like as they had PS3 graphics. Just felt like you were playing an very old game.
This one's is going to look great graphics wise don't have a doubt. AO Tennis 2 is one of the best looking games I've played in 4K.


Sent from my CPH2025 using Tapatalk

What would you rate AO Tennis 2 out of 10?

 

[Free Agent]

What would you rate AO Tennis 2 out of 10?

3 out of 10 hahah
After playing it a bit more it isn't that good. I was just excited on the the first day of playing it.

 

[DNAngel]

I am loathe to give too much away at this point but also don't want to lead people on - the game will not make this year.

The good news is that it means we can take the Big Footy community on the dev journey with us, and like last time have a fair amount of back-and-forth with meaningful and material input to the game.

Are you guys planning to release the AFL game in 2023?

 

[DNAngel]

I mentioned it during the previous footy game launch and will say it again, creating AI for an Australian Football game would have to be one of the hardest problems to solve in any genre of game. For an action game I could easily create a state machine and have enemies search for the player or path find the environment based on some easily tuned conditions. For a soccer game the AI player positioning and movement is a little more rigid due to formations and movement and deviation could be tweaked for realism. Being a rectangular field even the rules like offside would be seemingly easy to implement because you can used rigid world coordinates. For an AFL game though this quite tricky and I think why it has been so common to see so many rigid and 1v1 contests of every game to date (I haven't played the last few so I'm only going by what I read here). The process on attempting to create realistic AI for an Australian Football game would be fascinating to see.

It sounds like you're a developer

 

[DNAngel]

3 out of 10 hahah
After playing it a bit more it isn't that good. I was just excited on the the first day of playing it.

Oh wow!

I haven't played AO Tennis 2 yet but am willing to give it a try.

What about Tennis World Tour 2? Have you played that?

 

[DNAngel]

So far not a whole lot of note, but that game was the first spark that led to me joining BigFooty for the footy jumpers and graphic design board and through the skills the community there helped me learn I’ve gone from zero art and design skill to being really good at it. BigFooty also helped me discover my love of writing about football and now after just about finishing my uni course it’s looking like 2022 will be the year I actually get my foot in the door in the industry. In a weird indirect way I’m not sure how much of that I’d have done without AFL 2007 being the first step and what I’d be doing now. I’d absolutely love it if this game gives the next generation of kids and young teenagers their spark to find their passion as well.

That sounds good!

Maybe you can work for the AFL someday

 

[DNAngel]

There's a lot of issues with Live 1, but it actually flowed properly. And it was Big Ant's first attempt, they originally planned 5 iterations that would focus on each factor of the sport.

Do you have the link where Big Ant said that they were planning 5 iterations of the AFL franchise?

 

[DNAngel]

The IR Gurus AFL games were bad. I read one the developers conceding they were putting in a poor effort. The only thing I liked were the power punches from the ruck contests.

Link to where the developer said that?

 

[DNAngel]

PES is the better Soccer series to learn from. FIFA is a bit too arcade like and scripted with its passing, by comparison. Also, I love the contested play and one on one battles in PES.

PES feels great in that every goal seems earned rather than scripted like in FIFA.

 

[Quivorir]

 

[DNAngel]

04 and AFL PE were crazy good. The first AFL game where you felt you could just keep playing it.

Contentious moment - I would say PE, Live 1 and Evo 2 are the only AFL games that you could genuinely play and still enjoy for longer than a few weeks.

Special mention to the bizarre almost-good game that was AFL 98 PC and Blue Tongue's Finals Fever back in 96 where they appeared to have a genuine crack, surprising all 25 people that played it.

I loved playing AFL 99 on the PS1 as a kid back in the day!

 

[DNAngel]

I'm pretty sure if the game was in more serious development, Ross would be on this forum, getting some ideas from us, like with Live 1. At the moment, it comes off like the development is only in preliminary stages, no where near release, yet.

It seems like the game is more likely to release in 2024 than anything.

 

[DNAngel]

BigAntStudios now that you guys have the rights to AFL, is there any chance of bringing AFL Live GOTY on PC to Steam with Steamworks?

This is to tide us over until your latest creation hits shelves .

 

[DaveM303]

BigAntStudios now that you guys have the rights to AFL, is there any chance of bringing AFL Live GOTY on PC to Steam with Steamworks?

This is to tide us over until your latest creation hits shelves .

No, because the rights of that game still belongs to the publisher, TruBlu.

 

[DNAngel]

No, because the rights of that game still belongs to the publisher, TruBlu.

WW never had the rights, they were doing it as a work for hire job. The rights were with Tru Blu.

The rights will sit entirely with the publisher/developer for the first time ever, being Big Ant Studios.

The team are based in Melbourne and understand their responsibility to deliver, it is our passion, we put money back into the sport (even when we didn't have the license) and go every week.

 

[Quivorir]

By george he did it.

 

[Archer_11]

By george he did it.

I seldom bite but what the heck Quivorir?