Update: Big Ant has detailed its plans for continuing to patch AFL 23 and rectify the issues players have been having since launch.
The studio says it’s been working around the clock and has released two patches so far, with another coming later today. It’s also listed the features and fixes that will be rolled out over the coming week to bring the game to a (belatedly) launch-ready state.
Frustratingly, the promised Pro Team mode is still off the table for an indeterminate amount of time, with Big Ant promising further news on it soon.
AFL23 Patch status. pic.twitter.com/X9Pfo2T3BB
— Big Ant Studios (@BigAntStudios) May 5, 2023
After a recent delay on all platforms, followed by another delay specifically just for Xbox players, AFL 23 has finally made its way onto physical and digital shelves for PS5, PS4 and PC today, but it’s not all good news just yet.
Taking to social media, players have been outspoken across the board about a number of issues with the game from performance and polish issues like bugs, hard crashes, non-functioning AI and matchmaking difficulties to straight-up missing features like the promised Pro Team mode.
Can’t even play Management Career because it crashes every time. There is nothing we can play because it’s always crashing, why bring this out on day 1 if it doesn’t even work? Absolute joke and a disgrace, stay clear of #AFL23 everyone until it’s patched up.
— Matt Modica (@MattModicaTPC) May 4, 2023
And then there’s things like… this.
— Tristan Bakes (@BakesTristan) May 3, 2023
For its part, Big Ant Studios had attempted this morning to address the problems players are facing with a very non-descript promise that it’s “aware of issues with the initial day one patch for AFL 23 and working to remediate them at the earliest opportunity.”
More recently, it’s announced that it’ll be releasing a smaller patch today that addresses gameplay and stability issues and has said “it’ll re-introduce other elements of the game over the next week to ensure the best possible result for AFL fans,” implying that the missing features are going to stay missing for a little longer.
AFL23 Patch Status pic.twitter.com/6YYnQf2cfM
— Big Ant Studios (@BigAntStudios) May 4, 2023
Recent early previews and hands-on with the game had seemingly exhibited far fewer issues, so what exactly has gone wrong in the process of launching the game is unclear, but there’s no denying that this isn’t the state the game should have released in and isn’t what fans were hoping for at even the most modest degree.
We’ve been playing the game for review and will endeavour to make sense of where things are at once Big Ant can rectify these unfortunate fumbles.
