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.

 

[mickelboy182]

Can only throw a guess out being that there might be some gameplay rollout later in the week?

That's all well and good, don't see why that couldn't be the response though? Even a non-specific 'gameplay footage coming soon' would suffice. The added secrecy just comes across poorly.

 

[Bianconeri]

Is there a reason why showing gameplay appears to be off the table?

It's a head scratcher.

My only guess is it would hurt their ingenious marketing so far

 

[carn tigez]

Question for BigAntStudios that may be answerable - are you able to shed any info on the logic for allocating Brownlow Medal votes? From memory I think Evo 2 was just fantasy scores, which actually worked ok, but has always been a really big weakness for AFL games. Is it going to be a simple stats based model or is there some method of weighting players who do impactful things eg higher weighting to stats when the margin is closer or similar

 

[dwwaino]

To be fair, if Chief cared about that the main AFL board wouldn't exist!

You must never go there.

 

[Etto]

Is there a reason why showing gameplay appears to be off the table?

It's a head scratcher.

I'd expect a gameplay trailer or something gameplay related this week (you would think)

 

[Flagmantle Pod]

Got the numbers just now from the retailers, AFL23 has the biggest pre-order numbers for any game in Big Ant Studios history, agreed - campaign is a total failure.

Imagine the pre order numbers if there was digital downloads!

 

[Bianconeri]

Imagine the pre order numbers if there was digital downloads!

Imagine the pre order numbers if they actually showed some gameplay

 

[JNT BA]

Is there a reason why showing gameplay appears to be off the table?

It's a head scratcher.

I've had enough looking at gameplay this week

For some reason I have been watching lots of gameplay this week... lots and lots and lots. I'll let you guys try to work that one out why.

We also have some other things planned as well to show gameplay. I also may have arranged for uh "someone" to come in and play the game for a while for everyone to see...


So how do you guys like this banner? Better quality than the version out there from people's cameras.

 

[Mkcaptain]

If Player Career was a big part of the game, you'd think there would have been a trophy related to getting selected in the All Australian team.

 

[mickelboy182]

For some reason I have been watching lots of gameplay this week... lots and lots and lots. I'll let you guys try to work that one out why.

We also have some other things planned as well to show gameplay. I also may have arranged for uh "someone" to come in and play the game for a while for everyone to see...

View attachment 1648524
So how do you guys like this banner? Better quality than the version out there from people's cameras.

That's great, much prefer a more direct response like this that it's coming rather than having to read between the lines and speculate.

 

[OhDustinMartin]

For some reason I have been watching lots of gameplay this week... lots and lots and lots. I'll let you guys try to work that one out why.

We also have some other things planned as well to show gameplay. I also may have arranged for uh "someone" to come in and play the game for a while for everyone to see...

View attachment 1648524
So how do you guys like this banner? Better quality than the version out there from people's cameras.

Really like that you've worked this in with accordance to Richmond's marketing campaign for round one. Shows a good level of attention to detail.

Any clues on what new features are present in coach management mode? Noticed there's an achievement for an All Australian team which is something I've never seen in an AFL game

 

[Aflsquads]

Isn’t your purpose here to engage with the community?

Instead you just have half of them on ignore and belittle them behind their back whilst simultaneously offering no information on a product you’re trying to sell. I’m really struggling to see what your purpose is here.

Gotta laugh at those whinging about the ‘lack of information/engagement’ Ever thought that more whinging leads to less information being shared here?

I reckon he’d be much more likely to engage, share and leak things here if there weren’t so many similar posts to this.

In fact, if we wind back the clock to the release of Live 1 pretty much all ‘firsts’ were shared here as I recall. The board was filled with robust discussion, banter many fantastic ideas.

This time, nearly all of the leaks/shares and information have been shared through other outlets. Perhaps that’s a fair indication of how hard this place is to read lately?

 

[stkilda7894]

None related to a player career or Star Team.

I think player career would be under managment mode based on what we've seen from the updated menus that have star team (on rob vlogs). So hopefully if that's the case, the management mode achievements that don't specifically reference "coach" would fall into that category. Surprised there isn't aren't individual achievements however like getting drafted number 1 or winning the brownlow, etc.

 

[stkilda7894]

Gotta laugh at those whinging about the ‘lack of information/engagement’ Ever thought that more whinging leads to less information being shared here?

I really don't think a company holds back from releasing publicly available information because they get annoyed at a few people on discussion board. Sounds a bit far fetched given that this discussion board makes up the tiniest fraction of their gamer base.

 

[Quivorir]

just glad that these types of bullshit trophies from AFL live 1 haven't returned.

 

[Flagmantle Pod]

For some reason I have been watching lots of gameplay this week... lots and lots and lots. I'll let you guys try to work that one out why.

We also have some other things planned as well to show gameplay. I also may have arranged for uh "someone" to come in and play the game for a while for everyone to see...

View attachment 1648524
So how do you guys like this banner? Better quality than the version out there from people's cameras.

YES JNT BA SHOW US MORE SCREEN SHOTS… WE ARE STARVING

 

[Michaels]

Non game play / mode question from me!

I have been getting this question a lot on different platforms, but has there been any update on if / when digital versions of the game will hit the respective stores BigAntStudios JNT BA ?

I know you mentioned there are a few more boxes to tick to get them up digital, but hopefully there is more good news in this space!

 

[Flagmantle Pod]

JNT BA would you kindly consider in depth details about Career or Star Team please? Thank you

Definitely gonna need some info on how the manager mode works. Will we be able to control all 18 teams and play god per se? Would really make the content I wanna make SUPER easy and im sure people will want to mess around and sim multiple seasons as manager of every team

 

[jdobs95]

For some reason I have been watching lots of gameplay this week... lots and lots and lots. I'll let you guys try to work that one out why.

We also have some other things planned as well to show gameplay. I also may have arranged for uh "someone" to come in and play the game for a while for everyone to see...

View attachment 1648524
So how do you guys like this banner? Better quality than the version out there from people's cameras.

If you are all for sharing niche screenshots to the BigFooty family, could I please kindly request a close up of goal umpiring superstar Alex Chisholm?

 

[DasItMayne]

I also may have arranged for uh "someone" to come in and play the game for a while for everyone to see...

Is it Stoody!!?!

 

[Aflsquads]

Could your nose be any browner?

Crisp reply mate - I love you too

 

[thefootymanalex]

Notice there's no star team trophies, maybe for future udates?

 

[Ambrose Burnside]

just glad that these types of bullshit trophies from AFL live 1 haven't returned.

View attachment 1648535

I dusted off ye olde Xbox 360 and lo and behold I did unlock one of them. In the spirit of the thread, here's a crappy phone photo:




Was the last achievement I ever unlocked in the game. No doubt I went "**** that" to the idea of playing through the whole season in real time

 

[Bianconeri]

Crisp reply mate - I love you too

We were never going to get those things mentioned regardless how we behaved, BigAntStudios made the conscious choice to give us as little information as possible during their makerting campaign. This much has been admitted by themselves repeatedly in their praise of their marketing knowledge.

You mention the board reception was a lot better during live one because actual information was published back then so you proved my own point there.

 

[JT_the_Man]

Guys they are trying to tell us that we will be getting gameplay this week.

Just in case some of you haven't figured it out yet.