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.

 

[St 07]

Personally I would say many people were interested in ‘the rest’. The gameplay does look brilliant and all credit to BA for that but at the moment it just doesn’t look like there are many improvements at all over evo 2 in the management mode, with some key features (aside from state leagues) like training players, that don’t seem to be present, despite being in evo 2. Depth seems to be lacking. Hopefully more is to be revealed and this changes though.

Mate if the gameplay looks brilliant then they can just hang their hat on that. Proudly.

 

[RU_]

Looks like you have to start with an AFL team, can’t start in the lower leagues.

 

[GOTHELIONS16]

Feel a lot better now. The submission build menus from the other day were confirmed incomplete and also the likely inclusion of state leagues.

My attention now draws to the players playing for AI teams in the Twistie3 video. Lots of bottom line players yet to even debut, winning the stats leaders. Ai Team selections came across as ridiculous and all stat leaders were random players. Hopefully this drastically improves or it will be a deal breaker for me to bother playing a career mode.

 

[DaveM303]

Based on Ross' own words actually

Still waiting for the source magpienato

 

[tastiger]

John Howard was one of the best prime ministers we’ve ever had.

Something we can all agree on

On VOG-L09 using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[Flagmantle Pod]

VFL/WAFL/SANFL players in the game. Huge win

 

[stkilda7894]

Great to see state leagues included. Love the inclusion of previous delisted players (and not retired players) being available in the draft. Archetype will be an interesting addition. However I do wish there was more to scouting than just a rating on draft day. Would also be nice to see which league and team you are drafting a player from. Room to build on in the future.

 

[Cubs2Lions]

VFL/WAFL/SANFL players in the game. Huge win

Yeah but there’s no QAFL, NTFL or TFL

#dissapointed

 

[Burnsy01]

Yeah but there’s no QAFL, NTFL or TFL

#dissapointed

Hopefully you can add custom league's BigAntStudios. The more league's to scout and look at the better.

 

[new0066]

these are the stats screens shown after a match.

 

[imwinningagreatwall]

Or let people use anyone created in the Academy to toss the coin?

100% let us make ourselves to flip the coin, or a mate as you have done!

 

[Ambrose Burnside]

Looks like you have to start with an AFL team, can’t start in the lower leagues.

Really?

Awesome that the lower leagues are there, really happy with that, but you can't start from the bottom and work your way up?

 

[crowsflag2030]

Not sure if this was mentioned in the video, but on the stat screens post game it says the match was played at Ikon park, so we should be able to customise the stadium in management mode, an awesome feature to have.

 

[Cubs2Lions]

these are the stats screens shown after a match.View attachment 1674664 View attachment 1674665View attachment 1674670

Take my money BigAntStudios, just take it all for the effort you put in this amazing game

 

[RU_]

Really?

Awesome that the lower leagues are there, really happy with that, but you can't start from the bottom and work your way up?

Didn’t appear to be possible, when he selected the team it just had the AFL teams. Possibly still to be revealed in the final version?

 

[TheHumanShoe]

John Howard was one of the best prime ministers we’ve ever had.

I've been lurking since the days of Evolution and the ratings fiasco. But damn, I think this is the hottest take I've ever seen and nothing will beat it. Congrats.

 

[RG16]

Yep this is my concern

The management mode menu we saw looked really light on, even compared to AFL 2007.

Even with Twisties latest video, no sign of state leagues and no sign of anyway to develop young players? Even 05 and 07 had forms of training simulation for your list where you then allocated development points

 

[Saintsation]

Really hope the stats are realistic, as in the players leading disposals and who’s kicking the goals. Very very important for mine, not Jarryd Witt’s leading all comers and Marlion Pickett

50

Marlion Pickett

Age

32

Ht

184cm

Wt

83kg

Pos.

M/F

Career

Season

Last 5

D

13.0

3star

K

7.5

3star

HB

5.5

4star

M

2.4

3star

T

3.3

5star

CL

1.5

4star

D

11.7

3star

K

6.7

3star

HB

5.0

3star

M

2.4

3star

T

3.6

4star

CL

1.3

4star

D

12.8

4star

K

7.2

3star

HB

5.6

4star

M

1.8

2star

T

3.2

5star

CL

1.6

4star

kicking 4


Sent from my iPhone using BigFooty.com

 

[Pickitt]

Really hope the stats are realistic, as in the players leading disposals and who’s kicking the goals. Very very important for mine, not Jarryd Witt’s leading all comers and Marlion Pickett kicking 4


Sent from my iPhone using BigFooty.com

The stats being "realistic" doesn't really have a fix, I played a 20 minute quarters game once and they ended up pretty realistic but not everyone wants to do that. If you're playing 5 minute quarters it's bound to look odd stats wise

 

[GOTHELIONS16]

The stats being "realistic" doesn't really have a fix, I played a 20 minute quarters game once and they ended up pretty realistic but not everyone wants to do that. If you're playing 5 minute quarters it's bound to look odd stats wise

But not the leading disposals for a season shouldn’t be jarrod Witts, and the leading goal kicker shouldn’t be Marlion Pickett. That’s what they are getting at. AFL Live 2004 did the stats well and were realistic. For example; The leading ai kicks for a season would be Nathan Buckley and the leading for handballs would be say Scott West. Top 10 for disposals would all be midfielders who actually rack it up like West, Buckley, S.Black, Hayes, R. Harvey ect. Top 10 goals would all be key forwards with a couple of elite small forwards in there. Top 10 for marks would also generally be your big bodied players. I just hope Bigant have an algorithm for certain types of players(archetype) to be leading different stats in stimulated games. Id hate to checkout the stat leaderboards after round 7 and see Paddy Dow leading the Coleman medal, Marc Pittonet leading tackles and Mitch Owies leading contested possessions. Would make career a deal breaker for me. JNT BA

 

[Ambrose Burnside]

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.

 

[Cummdog3000]

Wonder if we’re gonna get a proper in game reveal of pro team before release? Generally don’t get around the mode in other games, but actually pretty keen for a footy version

Michaels You should definitely host a grudge match series on stream between all the fellas beefing in here (The software engineer and myself included) .

 

[carn tigez]

I am very concerned about management mode, for a game with 5 x the budget of cricket 22. It is looking very light on at the moment

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

 

[GOTHELIONS16]

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.

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.

 

[BigAntStudios]

Depth is also about content - and that is what takes the most time and budget.

And for those banging on about budget, this has the most scanned players/coaches/umpires of any sports game ever, especially from a Women's equality POV.

So many stadiums, some showing the final state of a stadium before it's even built. Really happy with what the team at Big Ant has been able to achieve in their first crack at an AFL game after more than a decade, especially as there are probably only a handful of guys that worked on the last one we did.