Ace Combat 8 studio apologises over PC pre-order bonus
Bandai Namco says licensing kept Ace Combat Zero from launching standalone on Steam, and a fix is not guaranteed.
Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve has run into a pre-order controversy on PC. Players who pre-ordered the game on Steam expected it to include a separate copy of Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War, only to find that the bonus can be played by installing and booting Ace Combat 8. That mattered to buyers who picked up the game mainly to play The Belkan War on its own, including on handheld devices. The marketing around the offer had also changed before launch without an announcement from the developer, Bandai Namco.
Bandai Namco has since issued an apology through Steam, saying licensing restrictions and platform considerations prevented The Belkan War from being released as a standalone application, so it was offered through Ace Combat 8 instead. The statement acknowledged the company failed to explain the distribution method clearly in advance, but stopped short of promising a fix. Bandai Namco said it is evaluating options, including talks with platform partners, while warning that it cannot guarantee changes. The PS5 and Xbox versions do include the standalone bonus, and the game's Steam rating has slipped from around 4.5 to 3.6 amid the backlash.
Tags
- pc
- playstation
- xbox
Sources
Where this story ran: one outlet on 2 October 2026. The summary above is written by GamersGuild; the links go to the original reports.