Ace Combat 8 preorder bonus sparks PC backlash
Steam owners must install the full game to reach The Belkan War, and handheld PCs that cannot run the sequel are locked out entirely.
Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve has entered early access for Deluxe Edition owners ahead of its October 2 launch, but the rollout has drawn anger from PC players. The Deluxe preorder bonus includes Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War, the classic PlayStation 2 game re-released digitally with its original visuals and gameplay intact. On PS5 and Xbox Series X|S that bonus arrives as a separate download, so it can be launched without touching the new game. On Steam, however, The Belkan War is bundled as DLC that requires Ace Combat 8 to be installed and started first.
The practical fallout is steep. PC players who only wanted the older game are forced to download the full 135 GB install. Worse, weaker handheld devices such as the Steam Deck cannot run Ace Combat 8 at all, so The Belkan War is effectively locked out on hardware that would have handled it comfortably. Frustration grew after the Steam listing changed: it once described The Belkan War as a standalone application separate from the main game, and now states that the base game must be installed to play it. The sequel's Steam rating has dipped amid the outcry, and Bandai Namco has yet to clarify.
Tags
- pc
- playstation
- xbox
- dlc
Sources
Where this story ran: one outlet on 29 September 2026. The summary above is written by GamersGuild; the links go to the original reports.