Bandai Namco Launches Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve, Its First Mainline Entry Since 2019
Bandai Namco's Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve is officially out on PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC, ending a seven-year wait for a new mainline entry.
Bandai Namco's long-awaited Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve is officially available today, October 2, on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC via Steam. It is the ninth mainline entry in the arcade flight-combat series and the first since Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown launched back in 2019, closing a seven-year gap for players waiting on a new numbered chapter.
A New Pilot, a Legendary Callsign
Developed by Bandai Namco Aces and built on Unreal Engine 5 with the studio's proprietary "Cloudly" cloud-rendering technology, Wings of Theve casts players as the inheritor of a legendary callsign once held by a pilot regarded as the greatest ace the fictional nation of the FCU ever produced. Set around its capital, Theve, the campaign follows the player alongside two wingmates, Baxter and Tasha, and squadron lead Coster, as "Joker Flight" takes to the skies over a homeland under threat.
Seven Years in the Making
Bandai Namco Aces brand director Kazutoki Kono has said the project took roughly six to seven years to put together. "With that extra time, we were able to polish the game and really raise the bar in terms of quality," Kono said of the extended development window, which also let the team expand the campaign to what the studio describes as the largest volume of mission content the series has produced since the original Japanese release of Ace Combat 3: Electrosphere.
What's Included at Launch
The game ships in Standard and Deluxe editions, with the latter bundling a Premium Ace Pass Plus voucher alongside the base campaign; a separate Joker Flight Pack sold through Bandai Namco's own store adds physical extras like vinyl records and an artbook. Digital preorders carried over a bonus copy of Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War and an unlockable F-14A Tomcat, both of which are now active for anyone who reserved a copy ahead of launch. Players moving straight to the cockpit today should check the recommended flight controls and graphics settings before their first sortie, since the defaults favor a gamepad layout that newcomers to the series may want to remap.
“With that extra time, we were able to polish the game and really raise the bar in terms of quality.”Kazutoki Kono, Brand Director, Bandai Namco Aces
More Than Thirty Aircraft, Real and Fictional
Wings of Theve's hangar spans more than thirty flyable aircraft, mixing real-world military jets with original designs created for the fictional setting the series is known for. Bandai Namco has also confirmed that owners of the Deluxe Edition, along with anyone who bought in during the September 29 early-access window, have already had three extra days in the cockpit ahead of today's wide release.
A Franchise Returning From Its Biggest Milestone Yet
Wings of Theve arrives on the back of the series' strongest numbers to date. Bandai Namco confirmed in January that Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown had passed 7 million copies sold worldwide on its own, pushing cumulative sales across the Ace Combat franchise past 21 million copies since the first game released on PlayStation in 1995. That long tail, helped along by a 2024 Switch port of Skies Unknown, is part of why Bandai Namco Aces took the extra development time Kono described rather than rushing a follow-up. The studio is betting that a deeper single-player campaign and a wider aircraft roster will carry that momentum into the new generation of consoles.
Where to Buy It
Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve is live now on the Steam store page, alongside the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S storefronts, with Standard and Deluxe pricing detailed on Bandai Namco's official game page. The publisher's full launch announcement, including platform and edition specifics, is posted on its newsroom.
PC players should check the listed system requirements before installing: Bandai Namco's Steam listing calls for a 64-bit copy of Windows 11, an Intel Core i7-10700K or AMD Ryzen 5 3600X, 16 GB of RAM, a hardware ray-tracing-capable GPU such as an RTX 2060 or RX 6600 XT, and 150 GB of SSD storage, since the game will not run without an SSD and DirectX 12 with Shader Model 6.6 support.
Official links
Theo covers the business of games for Gamers6: studio moves, platform strategy and the press releases nobody else finishes reading. He files most days before the coffee is cold.
