Bandai Namco Entertainment has announced that “ACE COMBAT ZERO” (the pre-order bonus for “ACE COMBAT 8: WINGS OF THEVE” [“ACE COMBAT 8”]), is expected to be released as a standalone application on Steam.
"Ace Combat ZERO," which is not scheduled for standalone release
"Ace Combat ZERO" was included as a port in the early purchase bonus for the physical edition of "Ace Combat 8" and as a pre-order bonus for the digital edition; however, it has been explained that it will not be sold separately due to issues related to fighter jet licensing.
For this reason, the official X account had previously issued a reminder urging fans to pre-order before the release of *Ace Combat 8*.
Update on the Steam Version’s Availability
The announcement made on Steam today, October 13, concerns the distribution method for “Ace Combat ZERO,” and includes a disclaimer stating that users without the pre-order bonus will not be able to obtain the game.
Regarding the distribution method for *Ace Combat ZERO*, the company revealed on October 1 that it had received inquiries and requests from users and posted an apology for the inconvenience and confusion. However, on October 2, it reported that, as part of progress on the matter, it was looking into changing the distribution method to release the game as a standalone application on Steam.
In this latest update, it was announced that the standalone “Ace Combat ZERO” application is expected to be released on Steam. The company stated that it is currently conducting final quality and functionality checks.
Additionally, once the standalone application version is released, it will coexist with the traditional version—which requires launching *Ace Combat 8* to play (selected as a launch option)—and save data sharing via Steam Cloud is expected to be supported.
*ACE COMBAT 8: WINGS OF THEVE* is currently available for PS5, XBOX Series X|S, and Windows (Steam).
