Ace Combat 8 Shows Its 16 Minute Opening Cinematic Before October 2

Seven years is a long time between Ace Combat games, and Bandai Namco is spending the last week before Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve arrives showing rather than teasing. On Thursday, Bandai Namco Entertainment America published the complete opening cinematic of the game, all 16 minutes of it, on its official channel. A day later came a five minute "101 Overview" trailer that walks through the campaign, the squadron and the new online mode in one sitting.

The essentials first. Ace Combat 8 launches October 2, 2026 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC through Steam. The Standard Edition is $69.99 and the Deluxe Edition is $89.99 on Bandai Namco's own store. Deluxe buyers, along with the PC only Joker Flight Pack tiers, play three days early from September 29, which Steam lists as September 28 at 3 p.m. Pacific. Pre-ordering any edition adds the F-14A and a port of Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War, the 2006 PlayStation 2 game.

Video: Bandai Namco Entertainment America on YouTube

What the opening and the overview actually show

The story stays in Strangereal, the series' fictional Earth. The Federation of Central Usea has been invaded by the Republic of Sotoa, and the opening cinematic sets up the war and the death of Jan Cope, the legendary pilot known as the Wings of Theve. You play Rex, the rookie who inherits that title as Joker 1. The overview then introduces the rest of Joker Flight: Professor, a calm veteran named Ellington Baxter, Tasha Severskaya, a former Yuktobanian aerobatic pilot, and William Coster, the hard rock fan the squad calls Noise. Bandai Namco has also been running Hour Zero, a four episode live action prequel series that covers the first days of the invasion from the ground.

Two campaign features stand out. First-person scenes between missions are new to the series, and they are where the squad bonding happens, on carrier decks and in briefing rooms rather than in text boxes. The quick wingman command system from Ace Combat 5 also returns, so you can direct Joker Flight from the d-pad mid mission. Beyond that, the pitch is familiar in the best way: multi-layered cloudscapes, chain destruction that lets one explosion set off the next across a ground target, and returning aircraft that include the Typhoon, the F-14D Super Tomcat and the F-4E Phantom II.

Ace Combat Online is the big new bet

The part of the overview that will split fans is Ace Combat Online. It is a separate mode with its own save data and progression, and it starts in a persistent air base lobby where up to 100 players walk around as custom avatars, with an arcade museum, a jukebox and a training area. Cross-platform play works across all three platforms. The modes are mostly cooperative: Co-Op Assault pits two teams of four against the same mission for the higher score, Co-Op Warfare mixes two four player teams with NPC units, Scrambles sends four players against a powerful enemy squad, and Emergency Sorties put eight players against the series' famous superweapons. Limited time PvP events cover 4v4 deathmatch and eight player free-for-all.

Progression runs on an Ace Pass that refreshes every two months, with a free Standard track and a paid Premium Ace Pass Plus track. The Deluxe Edition bundles a Premium voucher that Bandai Namco says unlocks 30 levels, and the campaign is fully separate, so nobody who just wants the story has to touch any of it. Still, a battle pass in an Ace Combat game is new territory, and how generous the free track feels in practice will decide whether the online mode becomes a community or a shop.

Our take is that the campaign looks like exactly the game Ace Combat 7 players hoped for, and the opening cinematic is worth 16 minutes of your weekend even if you never buy it. The online mode is the gamble. We would rather see this much effort go into co-op than into another deathmatch, and the cross-play lobby is a good sign, but we will hold our verdict on the Ace Pass until we have flown a season of it.