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.

 

[mclovin99]

Would like to see Accor Stadium in Olympic Park, Sydney with the new massive/stretched video screen - though I doubt it will be in the game as no matches are played there this season. Given the massive list of screenshot requests I’ll be happy to wait for release to see if its in the game, not confident though

Ew no I've had enough of that stadium as a league fan.
15k fans in a 80k stadium is feral.

 

[RU_]

I can’t see the screenshots on the last post!

Wouldn’t mind some shots of the Gabba/Brisbane team if you get a chance Ross!

 

[stkilda7894]

BigAntStudios obviously not much has been discussed in regards to career modes. We know there is a player career and a management career. In management career, do you control the team as a coach? Whether this is an AFL coach or custom coach. Or is management career about managing the club, including managing coaches which would see hiring and firing?

 

[mclovin99]

BigAntStudios obviously not much has been discussed in regards to career modes. We know there is a player career and a management career. In management career, do you control the team as a coach? Whether this is an AFL coach or custom coach. Or is management career about managing the club, including managing coaches which would see hiring and firing?

Good question I'd say you're the coach which you can choose to be a star coach or custom.

Also their would be light management like staff and ticket prices like evo 2 I'd assume.

Hopefully it's not like league live 4 as the management mode absolutely sucked in that one.

 

[mclovin99]

I can’t see the screenshots on the last post!

Wouldn’t mind some shots of the Gabba/Brisbane team if you get a chance Ross!

In cricket 22 it looked dope so if you have that I'd assumed it'll look pretty similar

 

[buttsauce]

Does FIFA and 2k have the women’s teams in it?

 

[BringBackTheAnchor]

Does FIFA and 2k have the women’s teams in it?

yes

 

[RG16]

Does FIFA and 2k have the women’s teams in it?

Didn't FIFA even go as far as having women on the cover too? Sam Kerr was definitely on for Aus copies recently.

Feel like 2k would surprise me if it has WNBA. Wonder if WNBA my career is a thing

 

[George]

Pin please
FAQs about AFL23:

What was the original release date for AFL23?

13th of April

What is the current release date for AFL23?

4th of May

Why did the release date get pushed back 3 weeks?

Games for the Xbox platform were yet to be cleared through customs on the 6th of April- 1 week before the original release date. As it is a requirement for JB and EB stock to arrive in stores one week before release, Big Ant had no choice but to push back the release date. PlayStation games were in stock in time.

Why couldn’t Big Ant just sell the game digitally and on PS platform, from the original release date?

Fairness and equity. It is a requirement for games to be available for both platforms in store concurrently on release so sales are not effected in store or for a specific platform (in this case Xbox).

Surely there was an alternative way around this?

Unfortunately this is not the case without costing bigant financially, or risking the damage of relationships with JB, EB or Microsoft. So it is what it is.

Has the game cleared customs yet?

We do not know if games on Xbox have cleared customs, however Big ant have stated on this thread and on twitter that they will let us know when the copies have been cleared into Australia

Could this release date be pushed back again?
Yes it could, dependent on if the Xbox games have not cleared customs and/or EB and JB stores have not received stock in each state a minimum 1 week before release. So copies must be in stores by 27th of April to avoid further delays.

Could the release date be pushed forward?

Yes Ross has said it can be if stock is received by stores more than one week before 4th May, however this is looking less and less likely by the day.

What will be in the game?
Fully licensed AFL and AFLW competitions with all 18 clubs, all players photo captured and assigned with unique skills traits/attributes and ratings powered by Champion Data. There will also be official VFL, SANFL, WAFL and U18 competitions included however it has not been announced whether these players will be licensed or generic. There will be over 30 offical stadia from around the country.

There is claimed by Big ant to be an extensive list of features.
These include:
Play Now
Season mode
Deep Management Mode with tactics, draft, trade, free agency and official AFL coaches(likeness included).
Player Career
Star Team (Ultimate)
Academy Creation tools (stadium, guernsey, club, player)
Hall of Fame (past awards and premierships)

Commentators on the game will include:
Hamish McLaughlin
Jason Bennett
Kelli Underwood
Anthony Hudson
Daniel Harford
and Gary Lyon.
Unfortunately Daisy was cut from the team late in development.

How many gb is the game for download?

52gb

When will Star team content be announced?

It has already been announced that this mode will include current players and legends. The legends have not been announced yet, and this is being saved for a special reveal closer to release. Star Team mode will be available to play on release day. There will be in game purchases.

When will there be gameplay shown?

Ross has made it clear that there will be videos of current build gameplay footage released by big ant and content creators before release. With an emphasis on ‘before’. It is also important to consider that the marketing strategy of bigant/AFL is to spend most of the marketing budget post release when the game is available for purchase. Anything marketed goes through an extensive approval process by all parties involved(AFL, Nacon, ect, before being shown to the public.)

Wasn’t there already gameplay shown at the launch event in April?

While there was game play shown at the launch event, this was from an old dev/Frankenstine build, designed specifically for the launch event. Due to this we can not use this footage as a determinant of how good or bad the gameplay in AFL23 will be. We will need to pass judgement until the new gameplay trailer emerges in the coming days. Watch this space!

Almost rivals your world famous player ratings...

Geez Louise...

 

[Treehill23]

Didn't FIFA even go as far as having women on the cover too? Sam Kerr was definitely on for Aus copies recently.

Feel like 2k would surprise me if it has WNBA. Wonder if WNBA my career is a thing

At this point, I don’t even care if the AFLW is an open world sims game mode and the AFL is an ASADA simulator
I just want some damn gameplay like we were promised lmfao

 

[Xtreme]

I'm hearing Certified Legendary..

It must be so!

 

[GoldbergsGold]

How come the grass looks so much better in Rugby League Live 3?

 

[palmomagpie]

Not sure if just me, but the sneaky buggers on the ps store have taken down AFL23? Probably sick me of opening it daily to check if a release date shows

 

[Ambrose Burnside]

Two weeks before launch!

Pumped for that screenshot of ... Geelong.

 

[palmomagpie]

I cannot confirm anything about the release date until everything is 100% set and all retailers have what they need.

My expectation that we will be fine for 4 May has not changed.

Great news to wake up to , and the screenshots of Whitten look fantastic. The team working on the stadium graphics seem to have done a top notch job so far. Looking forward to May 4 to see TIO Stadium and Norwood Oval in all their glory

 

[deker79]

View attachment 1665181

Not sure if just me, but the sneaky buggers on the ps store have taken down AFL23? Probably sick me of opening it daily to check if a release date shows

Yep had it saved in my wish list and its disappeared. Wonder what that means!

 

[carn tigez]

Two weeks before launch!

Pumped for that screenshot of ... Geelong.

Thanks Ambrose. I'm going to have to disagree with you there. I'm looking forward to a screenshot of.....Geelong.

 

[palmomagpie]

Yep had it saved in my wish list and its disappeared. Wonder what that means!

Fingers crossed they've just dragged it to update some details or until they get further clarification on release date. I don't think it signifies anything negative though

 

[Sewelly101]

Well that was amazing! (Especially as he's now agreed to be in the game, we'll patch him in.)

The covers shown are legitimate.

Never put anyone on the ignore for an opinion on a player(s) likeness, Ignore is reserved for oxygen thieves.

As promised, some Whitten Oval at different times of day with new development: (As always, my screenshots are in game with a dev flight-cam)

Looks amazing! Hopefully majority of team’s training bases are in game and it acts as a location in career mode

 

[Ambrose Burnside]

Fingers crossed they've just dragged it to update some details or until they get further clarification on release date. I don't think it signifies anything negative though

Serious question cos I don't know the answer, but how often is a game pulled from the PlayStation store two weeks before launch?

 

[FearTheBeard13]

Serious question cos I don't know the answer, but how often is a game pulled from the PlayStation store two weeks before launch?

Good question, I personally dont know. Is there any chance its been pulled as a wishlist item and will be reuploaded as the full game since presumably it’s gone gold, has a new release date and we know what the file size is?

 

[jdoggdrool]

No rips or dacking.

Dacksless Enright or gtfo.

 

[Tokyo Sandblaster]

So many good Aussie artist nowadays, time to get some king gizzard, pond, Alex lahey and maybe even abbe may songs onto the afl23 soundtrack.

King gizzard, northeast party house and DZ Deathrays. Maybe even some of The Gurge for older players.

 

[andy_c91]

King gizzard, northeast party house and DZ Deathrays. Maybe even some of The Gurge for older players.

Maybe a bit of Paul kelly, You Am I and Powderfinger too

 

[JNT BA]

My guess was Thursday or Friday

So yes it was supposed to be today. Unfortunately, they have pushed off their visit until next week which is sad I was really looking forward to them coming in. Had some fun things planned out for them, then I heard late yesterday afternoon they need to push it back. Trying to get work out some other things for this week. No Promises about that. Someone asked if it was Dean, but it is not Dean. I'm more than happy for Dean to come in but he never asked.

But let's get to some questions and requests. Of course, I won't be able to get to everything such as gameplay as I really wanted this personality to give their own take on the gameplay since me saying yeah it's good here is this heavily edited video that has been approved by many people just isn't quite the same as having someone giving their own experience on it with supporting footage.

How bout a shot of each stadium, or gameplay for each game in next week's round of footy?

Well, each stadium is a lot to ask there are lots and we don't have unlimited time at the moment but let's do a few. New ones we like to show not on a schedule. We had lots of fun yesterday getting the ones Ross posted. So drip feed it will be for some others.

I appreciate the little sunshower I got here in this one.

Can you please show the Grand Final atmosphere at the G in the footage please?

Oooooh now this I won't touch as much as I would like to.

On a 100% completely unrelated note... What some people missed from the launch event was that the 30-second trailer we showed was not the full trailer and there is more to come for that where we want to show some other parts of the game.

Also, how does development work over Big Ant titles? Do you have some that are strict to one title or are everyone working on multiple depending on when they are needed?

Yes

"JNT BA Thanks for the media in advance of next week!! I’m actually really curious to know for yourself, BigAntStudios and the BA crew what specific areas/modes/details of the game actually get you most eager for fan response upon game release?"

The banners, I'm excited about the banners and not cause I spent a lot of time on them while doing everything else I do in the studio, haha but no. As a whole, I'm sure each department would like to see how people like their work. It also gives us a good baseline for what we can improve on as well as what we have done well. Personally, I like watching people look at stadiums and have a reaction of "That looks like how I remember it" or "I can notice this straight away". I was fortunate enough to spend some time with an AFLW friend of the studio recently and they brought some family members to have a little play and was great seeing their reactions to it all as well.

"Is there anything about what stadiums will be in the game?"

So previously I had given a specific % number about how many of the stadiums at that current time were in the game based on the list they had. The math man got the number of stadiums correct. But hey you never know maybe some more can be added in. In terms of the exact specific stadiums and grounds, it's another thing we wanted our visitor to show off.

"I really hope if it's not in the game already that Big Ant could add 7.5 minute quarters"

Ok since this was on display at the launch party but we controlled it as we needed to shuffle through as many people as while keeping the lines short on the play units. We wanted to have a number of options as we want to give those who want to go for a long time the option to play for a "whole match"
while also making sure that those who may not have unlimited time have the option to jump in and play a quick match when they have a time slot. So at this moment, we are working with:
2.5 Minutes
3.5 Minutes
5 Minutes
7.5 Minutes
10 Minutes
Full Length

This is not to say we can't add more later.

I know someone wanted a live reaction of Ross and I as we read the posts on the thread. But I had previously posted what I look like a while ago when reading through it all. I can't speak for Ross but this is another one of me sometimes.