Controversy erupts around Ace Combat 8 on PC as bundled Belkan War re-release remains problematically attached to the new game, whereas it's standalone on console
Early access to Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve is now available to owners of the game's Deluxe Edition, but the launch has been soured due to publisher Bandai Namco's handling of one particular pre-order bonus.
Early access to Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve is now available to owners of the game's Deluxe Edition, but the launch has been soured due to publisher Bandai Namco's handling of one particular pre-order bonus.
The short version
- Pre-ordering any version of Ace Combat 8 comes with a copy of Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War , and longtime fans were especially looking forward to this re-release because this 2006 game never appeared on anything other than PlayStation 2.
- PC players were led to believe their copy of The Belkan War would be a separate product, because this is the way it works on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.
- Something changed on Steam, however, to make the game DLC for Ace Combat 8 instead.
What happened
Should it remain this way, it presents a number of associated problems, such as having to download a huge modern game to access a comparatively tiny old game, and the inability to run The Belkan War separately on weaker hardware, such as the Steam Deck. It's not what the game's Steam listing used to say.
Why it matters
In the post, a user who pre-ordered Ace Combat 8 on Steam was unable to find The Belkan War in their Steam library.
Summary by Nerd News Network. Read the full article at Eurogamer via the links above and below.