Footy season approaches, and with it, the latest iteration in the long-running AFL series of video games.
This year’s title, AFL 23, will arrive on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC platforms from April 13th. What can players expect from this year’s iteration? A full management career mode and the ability to create your own teams, players, and even stadiums. These player-created sets can then, Big Ant says, be shared online for other players to use.
The game will also feature over 1200 real-world AFL and AFLW players, which is great news for both the rapidly growing AFLW and for players that want to create a dream squad full of legendary names.
The game will feature running commentary from Jason Bennett, Daniel Harford, Anthony Hudson, Hamish McLachlan, Daisy Pierce, and Kelli Underwood, with campaign and quick-play matches playable at 30 stadiums from around the country.
You asked for it! AFL 23 drops April 13 on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC platforms 🎮
Pre-orders are open NOW: https://t.co/4gCSCWkH14
Who do you wanna see on the cover? #AFL23 pic.twitter.com/sO1kYDiZoY
— AFL (@AFL) March 1, 2023
Games based on Australian Rules football have been around since at 1991 when Beam Software first released Aussie Rules Footy for the NES. The license later landed with EA for a time, where games were developed by the now defunct Blue Tongue Interactive (rest in power), and Total War‘s Creative Assembly (didn’t see that one coming). Acclaim would pick up the license for several years after that, before Sony Computer Entertainment would scoop it up in the mid-2000’s.
Yes, for a hot minute there, Sony itself said “AFL is a PlayStation exclusive.”
The 2010’s began with two AFL games running alongside each other — Big Ant’s AFL Live debuted in 2011 on PC, Xbox 360 and PS3, up against AFL on the Wii, developed by Wicked Witch Software.
Wicked Witch would take the lead on AFL games from there, launching AFL Live 2, and AFL Evolution 1 and 2 until 2020.
AFL 23, plainly named to sit in line with popular EA Sports titles like Madden, EA FC, NHL and F1, is being developed by Melbourne studio Big Ant, its first AFL game in 12 years. Big Ant is known for the long-running and very popular Cricket, AO Tennis, and Rugby League games, among others. With this latest feather in its cap, Big Ant further cements itself as the one-stop shop for Australian sports games.
In addition to planting a release date flag for April 13, AFL Live preorders also opened right away. EB Games and JB Hi-FI already have preorders live as you read this.
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