ACE COMBAT 8: WINGS OF THEVE
The first mainline Ace Combat in seven years touches down October 1, 2026 on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, and Steam pre-orders are already open at $69.99. It's set in 2029, the war's opening round is already lost, and you fly the whole campaign under a dead man's callsign.
You play a dead man's callsign
The premise is the most interesting thing the series has done in a while. July 2029: the Republic of Sotoa invades the Federation of Central Usea and takes the capital, Theve. The FCU's propaganda machine had built a legend called the Wings of Theve — Commander Jan "Rex" Cope, the hero ace. Then Cope gets shot down and killed, and the military hands his name to you: a pilot pulled out of the sea by the aging carrier Endurance. The legend is a lie. You spend the campaign keeping it airborne anyway.
Sunao Katabuchi, who wrote Ace Combat 04 and Ace Combat 5, is on the script. Between missions you walk the Endurance in first person and talk to Joker Flight — Baxter, Tasha, Coster — the wingmen you command in the air. The June State of Play trailer showed the Land Battleship, a boss measured in the hundreds of meters that flattens skyscrapers on its way through the occupied capital. Project Aces is building this one in Unreal Engine 5, and the studio says the online modes will be detailed between now and launch.
The minimum spec has opinions
Most minimum specs flatter your hardware. This one doesn't. Steam's own notes say the game requires an SSD and a graphics card with hardware ray tracing, and targets 1080p upscaled at 30fps on Low. A 2020 mid-range GPU being promised console-lockup numbers at Low settings is worth reading twice before you pre-order the PC version.
| Minimum | Recommended | |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | Core i7-10700K / Ryzen 5 3600X | Core i7-12700K / Ryzen 5 5600X |
| RAM | 16 GB | 32 GB |
| GPU | RTX 2060 6GB / RX 6600 XT 8GB | RTX 3070 / RX 6800 16GB |
| Storage | 125 GB (SSD required) | 125 GB (SSD required) |
| OS / API | Windows 11, DirectX 12, SM 6.6+ | Windows 11, DirectX 12, SM 6.6+ |
The ray-tracing requirement is the quiet killer: plenty of cards from the GTX 10 and RX 500 generations can't run this at all, whatever their raw horsepower. If your rig predates RTX, this is a console decision, not a settings tweak. The 125 GB install is on the heavier side too.
Three ways to buy it — and one throw-in that actually makes sense
Standard is $69.99. Deluxe is $89.99 and adds three days of early access (September 28 PT / September 29 elsewhere), a Premium Ace Pass Plus voucher with a 30-level skip, an F-4E Mobius 25th anniversary skin, an F/A-18C Team Zvezda skin, a Tasha costume set, and scarlet missile smoke. The Joker Flight Pack is $149.99, only at the Bandai Namco Store, and stacks two soundtrack LPs, a 200-page "ACES at WAR: A HISTORY 2029" artbook, a slipcase and a slipmat on top of Deluxe.
The pre-order bonus is the odd one out, in a good way: every pre-order, Standard included, gets the F-14A Tomcat plus a full port of ACE COMBAT ZERO: THE BELKAN WAR — the 2006 PS2 game — on whatever platform you buy for. It unlocks alongside Ace Combat 8 and needs one online activation. A whole 20-year-old game as the sweetener beats most skin packs, and it's only attached to the pre-order window.
The online part comes with a pass
Steam lists In-App Purchases as a store category, and that's the Ace Pass: a seasonal track with free and premium tiers, sold separately or bundled with Deluxe. Season 1's headline item is the ADFX-02 Morgan -PIXY- — pass owners fly it immediately online, while campaign-only players can still earn it the old way by clearing every mission. Co-op and PvP are both on the store page with crossplay across PC, PS5 and Xbox, and store listings put online play at up to 8 players, but the concrete modes haven't been announced yet. No VR this time — official listings confirm it's not supported.
So which date is it?
Steam says October 1. North America's exact window is 3 PM PT on October 1, which lands at midnight October 2 in Central Europe and 7 AM October 2 in Japan — that's why some store pages and outlets say the 1st and others the 2nd. Same game, same day, different time zones. Deluxe early access starts September 28 at 3 PM PT (September 29 in most regions).
Steam pre-order price as of Sep 11, 2026 (Standard Edition; Deluxe $89.99). No launch discount. The Steam API shows full price on both editions with no deal attached — the Zero port is the only pre-order incentive, and it goes away when pre-orders do.
Pre-order now, or wait for the patch notes?
If you were going to buy this regardless, pre-ordering is the only way to get the Ace Combat Zero port, and that's a real game with a real fanbase — not a sticker sheet. The F-14A and Zero port apply to Standard too, so there's no need to pay $20 more unless the three days of early access matter to you.
If you're on the fence, there are two honest reasons to wait. First, the minimum spec targeting 30fps at Low is a yellow flag for how the PC port will run on day one — launch-week performance reports are worth an evening of patience. Second, the Ace Pass economy is new to this series, and it's smarter to see how aggressive the online monetization actually feels before committing $70 to a game you'll mostly play single-player. The campaign itself is the reason anyone is excited here, and it's not going anywhere.
Quick facts
- Release: Oct 1, 2026, 3 PM PT (Oct 2 in most regions); Deluxe early access Sep 28/29
- Developer: Bandai Namco Aces Inc. (Project Aces)
- Publisher: Bandai Namco Entertainment
- Platforms: PC (Steam), PS5, Xbox Series X|S — full crossplay listed
- Engine: Unreal Engine 5 with Bandai Namco's Cloudly technology
- Modes: single-player campaign; online co-op and PvP, up to 8 players
- Install: 125 GB, SSD required, hardware ray tracing GPU required
- VR: not supported
- Pre-order bonus: F-14A + ACE COMBAT ZERO: THE BELKAN WAR port
FAQ
- When does it unlock? October 1 at 3 PM PT in North America — October 2 at midnight in Central Europe, 7 AM in Japan. Deluxe owners fly from September 28/29.
- What does my PC need? At minimum an RTX 2060 6GB or RX 6600 XT, 16 GB RAM, an i7-10700K-class CPU, and 125 GB on an SSD. A ray tracing GPU is mandatory, and the stated target is 1080p upscaled/30fps on Low.
- Is there VR support? No. Not on the Steam page, not in the official edition details.
- Can I play co-op? Online co-op and PvP are both listed with crossplay across the three platforms, up to 8 players — the specific modes haven't been detailed yet.
- What's the deal with Ace Combat Zero? Pre-orders include a port of the 2006 PS2 game on your platform of choice. It unlocks when Ace Combat 8 does and needs one online activation.
- Standard or Deluxe? Standard if you just want the campaign. Deluxe buys three days of early access plus Ace Pass extras; the $149.99 Joker Flight Pack is a collector's item with vinyl and a 200-page artbook, exclusive to the Bandai Namco Store.
Bandai Namco's official Deluxe Edition trailer on YouTube walks through what's in each version, and the Steam page has the full pre-order breakdown.