Ace Combat 8 Release Date: Out Now — Launch Time, Editions, Steam Reviews and PC Requirements

Ace Combat 8 release time in your time zone

Ace Combat 8 did not roll out at local midnight. Both the full launch and the Deluxe early access opened at one fixed moment worldwide, 22:00 UTC, and the Steam page switched from pre-purchase to “Add to Cart” at that moment. When we opened the US PlayStation Store page from our office in Poland on 28 September, it read “10/2/2026 12:00 AM GMT+2”, which is 22:00 UTC on 1 October. Xbox gives the early-access start as 3:00 PM PDT on 28 September, which is the same moment. The practical upshot: players in the Americas get the game on Thursday afternoon, the UK late on Thursday evening, and everyone east of Central Europe on Friday morning.

How Ace Combat 8 Deluxe early access worked

“Pre-Purchase this edition and play the game starting 3 days ahead of full release.”

— Steam, Advance Access note on the Ace Combat 8 Deluxe Edition, read 28 September 2026

Early access is the whole game, not a demo, and Bandai Namco limits it to the Deluxe Edition and the two PC-only Joker Flight Packs. It is the same 22:00 UTC moment as launch, three days earlier. When we loaded the US Steam page in the early hours of 28 September UTC, the Deluxe box carried an “Advance Access — Starts Sep 29” badge and a countdown reading “Starts in approximately 19 hours”, which lands on 22:00 UTC. Note that Steam prints the European calendar dates, 29 September and 2 October, even on the US store. In the Americas it is the afternoon before. Multiplayer was part of early access too, so Deluxe owners played Ace Combat Online from day one of the window. Buying Deluxe now still gets you the cosmetic set and the Ace Pass voucher, but the head start is over.

Ace Combat 8 launch: what shipped and what went wrong

The game itself landed well with critics, and on PS5 and Xbox the launch was quiet. PC was rougher. Steam players spent the early-access window reporting crashes, losing online sessions, finding that some flight-stick settings from Ace Combat 7 were gone, and discovering that the Ace Combat Zero bonus was not the separate game they had been told about. Bandai Namco answered each of these in Steam announcements between 29 September and 1 October, but none came with a patch or a date.

Ace Combat 8 launch-day numbers

We pulled these numbers ourselves about four hours after the global unlock. The review score comes from Steam’s own review summary for all languages; the English-only figure on the store page also read “Mostly Positive”, from 2,802 reviews. The player count is what Steam’s public player-count API returned at 02:06 UTC on 2 October, a Friday morning in Europe and a Thursday evening in the Americas, so expect the weekend peak to be higher. The gap between a 99% critic recommendation and a 76% player score is mostly the PC problems below, not the flying.

The Ace Combat Zero pre-order bonus problem on PC

Ace Combat 8 PC crashes and error ST-3100001

1. Install the graphics driver the game asks for
   Ace Combat 8 shows a recommended driver version when it starts. Bandai Namco says moving to that exact version may help if you are on a different one.
2. Free at least 16 GB on the game’s SSD
   The notice recommends 16 GB or more of free space on the drive the game is installed on, on top of the roughly 150 GB install.
3. Make sure Windows virtual memory is on
   Virtual memory (the page file) must be enabled. If you turned it off to save SSD space, turn it back on and restart.
4. For ST-3100001, sync the Windows clock
   Open Settings → Time & language → Date & time and press “Sync now”. Bandai Namco says a clock mismatch can cause the disconnect, then asks you to test the game again.

Ace Combat 8 flight stick and HOTAS support

In a Steam announcement on 30 September, Bandai Namco confirmed that some configuration options for certain devices that existed in Ace Combat 7 are missing from Ace Combat 8. It apologised to HOTAS and flight-stick players and said it is working to bring the experience closer to Ace Combat 7, while warning that the changes “may take time”. If you fly with a stick, that is the strongest reason to wait for a patch before buying on PC. On a controller, nothing changes.

Ace Combat 8 editions and price

Is the Ace Combat 8 Deluxe Edition worth it?

Now that the game is out, the extra $20 buys two things, not three: the 72-hour head start is gone. The first is a cosmetic set, which is two aircraft skins, a costume for your wingman Tasha and red missile smoke. The second is a Premium Ace Pass Plus voucher. The Ace Pass is the multiplayer season pass: seasons run for two months with a free track and a premium track, and the Plus voucher adds 30 instant level unlocks. If you mainly want the campaign, none of that changes the game you play. Steam now sells that cosmetic set on its own for $9.99, so the Ace Pass voucher is effectively costing you about $10. That is reasonable if you plan to live in Ace Combat Online for its two-month seasons (Season One, “Find Your Reason to Fight”, started on 1 October) and poor value if you only want the campaign.

Joker Flight Pack collector’s editions

The two Joker Flight Packs are physical boxes sold through Bandai Namco’s own store, and the game inside is a Steam code, so they are PC-only. They contain all of the Deluxe content, so they come with early access too. The packs are named after Joker Flight, the player’s squadron in the campaign. Prices vary by region and Bandai Namco’s European post does not list them, so check the official store for your country. Bandai Namco’s US store also warns that it cannot guarantee the early-access window for physical orders, because delivery dates vary.

What happened to the Ace Combat 8 pre-order bonus

Every edition pre-ordered before launch came with two bonuses. The first is a playable F-14A. The second was a port of Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War, the 2006 PS2 entry, for the platform you bought on (on PC it runs inside Ace Combat 8, as explained above). On the PlayStation Store listing, it was the “PS5 Version” of Ace Combat Zero, which supports Japanese, English, French, Italian, German and Spanish. That is fewer languages than Ace Combat 8, and the store flags it. Sony’s small print also notes that some bonuses other than Ace Combat Zero may arrive later. The bonus ended at launch. On Steam the F-14A is now sold separately for $4.99, and we could not find Ace Combat Zero on sale anywhere on Steam on 2 October.

Ace Combat 8 FAQs

Ace Combat 8 PC requirements

These are demanding numbers for a 1080p target, and three of them will catch people out. Windows 11 is listed for both tiers, not Windows 10. Ray tracing is required rather than optional, so a GTX 10- or 16-series card is below the minimum however fast it is. And 150 GB is the listed install size on Steam, so clear the space before your early access or launch slot rather than on the night. Steam lists no Mac or Linux version.

Ace Combat 8 on Steam Deck, Denuvo and anti-cheat

The Steam page lists two pieces of third-party software. One is Denuvo Anti-Tamper. The other is Easy Anti-Cheat, which Steam labels “Kernel Level Anti-Cheat”. That matters mostly for Steam Deck and Linux players, because kernel-level anti-cheat often blocks online play through Proton. When we checked on 28 September there was no Steam Deck rating yet. By launch day Valve had rated it: its compatibility report for the game returned “Unsupported”, with SteamOS listed as not supported. Don’t buy it to play on a Deck.

Ace Combat Online, cross-play and subscriptions

Ace Combat 8 is two games in one box. The campaign follows a pilot called Rex, who takes on the identity of a dead ace known as the “Wings of Theve” after the Sotoan invasion of the FCU, and flies with Joker Flight: Baxter, Tasha and Coster. Ace Combat Online is the multiplayer side, and Bandai Namco calls it the largest in the series. It has 100-player lobbies, full cross-play, Co-Op Assault for 2–4 players against the AI, Co-Op Warfare with two teams of four plus AI units, and rotating limited events such as eight-player “Emergency Sorties” against superweapons. On console, online play needs a subscription: the PlayStation Store lists “PS Plus required for online play”, with up to 8 online players, and Xbox needs Game Pass Essential or higher. On Steam there is no extra fee.

Paying for Ace Combat 8 with a Steam or Xbox gift card

Ace Combat 8 reviews

Which Ace Combat 8 edition to buy

Sources & how we checked this