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.

 

[Coxy_]

And I couldn't care less about a coach career mode. Different strokes for different folks.

Yeah that's fair enough mate but having a non existent or shit career mode isn't a recipe for success when it comes to a sports title

 

[Lia]

Fantastic news and hopefully a new and better era for AFL games.

 

[SugarShane]

Shai Bolton

29

Shai Bolton

Age

25

Ht

176cm

Wt

77kg

Pos.

M/F

Career

Season

Last 5

D

12.3

3star

K

6.9

3star

HB

5.4

4star

M

2.8

3star

T

2.9

4star

CL

1.4

4star

D

12.7

3star

K

9.2

4star

HB

3.5

2star

M

3.0

3star

T

2.7

4star

CL

1.8

4star

D

9.2

3star

K

4.6

2star

HB

4.6

4star

M

2.0

3star

T

2.6

4star

CL

0.0

1star

to not be run down by Mason Cox

46

Mason Cox

Age

33

Ht

211cm

Wt

110kg

Pos.

F/R

Career

Season

Last 5

D

8.7

2star

K

5.2

2star

HB

3.5

3star

M

4.0

4star

T

1.6

4star

G

1.2

4star

D

6.0

1star

K

3.0

1star

HB

3.0

2star

M

2.3

2star

T

0.3

1star

G

1.0

4star

D

9.0

3star

K

5.4

2star

HB

3.6

3star

M

2.6

3star

T

2.4

4star

G

1.8

5star

or Levi Casboult

30

Levi Casboult

Age

34

Ht

199cm

Wt

104kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

9.9

3star

K

6.5

3star

HB

3.4

3star

M

5.3

5star

T

1.7

4star

G

1.1

4star

D

10.1

3star

K

7.6

3star

HB

2.6

2star

M

5.9

5star

T

1.3

2star

G

1.3

5star

D

9.2

3star

K

6.2

3star

HB

3.0

3star

M

5.2

5star

T

2.2

4star

G

1.4

5star

. Understand you don't want players to be too overpowered but I want to feel like I'm playing a game of footy.

This is something that is always brought up with AFL games, I guess because it's unique to our sport. I thought the speed differences in the original was were close to right. I felt like with a quick runner and the right amount of turbo I could outrun a ruck. In a game you don't want it to be too realistic because other wise it gets exploited.

You don't want someone putting Charlie Cameron or Shai Bolton in the back pocket, then kicking out to them and outrunning the entire field. There almost has to be a level of unrealism to even the playing field. One of those tightrope things that makes me glad I don't make games.

 

[netslave]

Just grab all the jumpers from Club by Club Jumpers and the community can make the rest.

 

[Coxy_]

Agree that it is very tough SS. To be honest though I think WW and even some of the older games didn't have it that bad. Live 1though you'd be lucky to have a run and bounce more than once a quarter.

 

[GoldbergsGold]

Just grab all the jumpers from Club by Club Jumpers and the community can make the rest.

Mero actually collaborated with IR GURUS for AFL Premiership 2007.

 

[Ambrose Burnside]

This is something that is always brought up with AFL games, I guess because it's unique to our sport. I thought the speed differences in the original was were close to right. I felt like with a quick runner and the right amount of turbo I could outrun a ruck. In a game you don't want it to be too realistic because other wise it gets exploited.

You don't want someone putting Charlie Cameron or Shai Bolton in the back pocket, then kicking out to them and outrunning the entire field. There almost has to be a level of unrealism to even the playing field. One of those tightrope things that makes me glad I don't make games.

Well that's why you need endurance/stamina as a attribute too, not just speed.

 

[Hawthorn23]

One thing I would be excited to explore would be custom career modes, using old teams. For example, starting a career mode with all the team lists from 2005 and playing through the years.

Having draft classes would be awesome but I think thats a stretch

 

[Hawthorn23]

 

[jdoggdrool]

Interesting. Normally when do things like face-scans occur during the development process, does anyone know?

 

[Yatmax]

Interesting. Normally when do things like face-scans occur during the development process, does anyone know?

Surely it's quite soon considering that Ross posted a random list of Carlton players, could've even been conducted today to some capacity

 

[jdoggdrool]

Surely it's quite soon considering that Ross posted a random list of Carlton players, could've even been conducted today to some capacity

I meant when do face-scans occur during the development process. Is it late in the process (indicating a sooner release date), or pretty early on (indicating they're a fair way away from releasing).

This is all assuming the image is hinting at face-scans and not something else.

 

[Mkcaptain]

Surely it's quite soon considering that Ross posted a random list of Carlton players, could've even been conducted today to some capacity

And the top of that sheet says "Video game"

 

[Treehill23]

I meant when do face-scans occur during the development process. Is it late in the process (indicating a sooner release date), or pretty early on (indicating they're a fair way away from releasing).

This is all assuming the image is hinting at face-scans and not something else.

This was posted in the comments
In my completely uneducated opinion, I’d guess that it’s unfortunately very early days in the development process considering when we received the screenshot of Travis Johnstone in AFL Live, we were still from memory at least 9-10 months from release and who knows how long before that scan was actually taken

 

[Treehill23]

Finally found it haha
This was a fair while before release so I’d guess we’re not getting a game this year

 

[Mkcaptain]

Finally found it haha
This was a fair while before release so I’d guess we’re not getting a game this year

Personally I disagree. The fact that they seem to be face scanning the 2022 lists is a very positive sign for a 2022 release.

Edit - Its hard to know how far they are in the development process and the impacts of needing all hands on deck for Cricket 22 for (presumably) longer than expected would have had on development. But I don't think anything can be read into the proximity between face scanning and release. For example in the new cricket game, due to COVID issues they couldn't face scan all licensed players before release, but they were easily able to patch them in after. So it seems that face scanning can be done relatively late in the process.

 

[Hawthorn23]

Personally I disagree. The fact that they seem to be face scanning the 2022 lists is a very positive sign for a 2022 release.

Normally the face scans used are from 12 months prior. I know that just from seeing the differing hair styles.

 

[Treehill23]

Personally I disagree. The fact that they seem to be face scanning the 2022 lists is a very positive sign for a 2022 release.

In saying that, as long as they have scans then it doesn’t really matter if it’s released this year or next year because it wouldn’t be hard to move a player from one team to another and the draft class from later this year can easily be done at a later date if it was to be released next year
I don’t think the scans confirm 2022 lists at all and previous titles have shown this but this is of course just my opinion and I hope I’m wrong haha

 

[Treehill23]

Also WW were still taking feedback on their support page just last year in regards to Evo 3 so I can’t imagine this game being developed whilst WW were still under the impression that they were going ahead with Evo 3

 

[Ambrose Burnside]

Great video and reminder that there have been great features in older AFL games that haven't made it across to any of the modern (post-PS2) games.

Look at the set play options in AFL 99 for example

 

[BigAntStudios]

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.

 

[Ambrose Burnside]

Disappointing there won't be a new AFL game this year, but much prefer that to a rushed release.

 

[Mkcaptain]

In saying that, as long as they have scans then it doesn’t really matter if it’s released this year or next year because it wouldn’t be hard to move a player from one team to another and the draft class from later this year can easily be done at a later date if it was to be released next year
I don’t think the scans confirm 2022 lists at all and previous titles have shown this but this is of course just my opinion and I hope I’m wrong haha

You were spot on and I was very wrong!

 

[Mkcaptain]

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.

That in itself is music to my ears. Your presence and banter on the forums was very fun last time in the build up to AFL Live. And I thoroughly enjoy your insights into the decision making on sports video game design, and issues like how to balance realistically simulating a sport against producing a game that is fun to play.

After almost a decade since the stupid and short-sighted decision was made to give AFL Live 2 to Wicked Witch, its exciting to feel optimistic about the future of AFL video games again. Especially after seeing what Big Ant has done for Cricket games in that same time period. Although I'll always wonder where we would be up to by now if Big Ant was 10 years into AFL games as well.

 

[BigAntStudios]

That in itself is music to my ears. Your presence and banter on the forums was very fun last time in the build up to AFL Live. And I thoroughly enjoy your insights into the decision making on sports video game design, and issues like how to balance realistically simulating a sport against producing a game that is fun to play.

Really looking forward to it, we've got a crack team of people on the game that are really into their footy.