Ace Combat is in a post-launch merchandise cycle for Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve, which released October 2, 2026 on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and Steam and has drawn music and sales milestones. Kotobukiya has reopened pre-orders on two 1/144 kits of series aircraft.
The main throughline is a launch that is settled and a merchandise line catching up to it. Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve arrived October 2, 2026 for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and Steam at 9,790 yen for the standard edition, with Deluxe Edition early access on September 29. Bandai Namco built it on Unreal Engine 5 and Cloudly, the sky and cloud rendering engine Q-Games researched, which renders a sky spanning 10,000 square kilometers. The campaign runs more than 20 missions, and the online mode is the largest in the series, with co-op and versus formats.
Sales and reception read as strong on every measured axis. Famitsu put the PS5 version at No. 1 in its first week with 63,013 copies, and the game is No. 1 on Steam's weekly sales ranking for a second week. Bandai Namco announced 1 million cumulative copies worldwide in the fastest time in series history on October 10. On SteamDB the peak concurrent count reached 48,743, and user reviews across all languages stand at Very Positive.
The rougher edges are technical, not commercial. Bandai Namco said some flight sticks that worked with Ace Combat 7 have features that do not work in Ace Combat 8 on PC, and it apologized on Steam that improvements will take time. The Ver.1.01.002 update planned for October 23, carrying campaign progression fixes and online tuning, may have its schedule adjusted because of a broader infrastructure problem outside the game.
Merchandise and the bonus port supply the rest of the picture. The Ace Combat Zero port for Steam was first delivered as a DLC executable that required the main game to be installed, then became a standalone application on October 13, where it holds a Very Positive rating from 414 reviews. It still cannot be sold separately, since Bandai Namco says fighter jet licensing blocks that. In model kits, Hasegawa has a 1/72 Su-33 Shadows kit due December 16, and Kotobukiya has reopened pre-orders on its CFA-44 and ADF-01 kits, re-released for June 2027.
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Kotobukiya is taking pre-orders on Rakuten Books for re-releases of two 1/144 scale ACE COMBAT plastic models: the CFA-44 in Strigon Skin and the ADF-01 in Wardog Skin. The CFA-44 lists at 5,940 yen and sells for 4,990 yen; the ADF-01 lists at 6,380 yen and sells for 5,320 yen. Both were designed from game data with the cooperation of PROJECT ACES.
Kotobukiya will re-release two entries from its 1/144 scale fictional aircraft plastic model line in June 2027. The CFA-44, the sixth kit in the series, costs 5,940 yen and measures about 166 mm; the ADF-01, the seventh, costs 6,380 yen at about 168 mm. Both are painted in Skin#07 schemes from ACE COMBAT 7 SKIES UNKNOWN, the Strigon Skin for the CFA-44 and the Wardog Skin for the ADF-01. Unpainted dark gray versions are sold separately.
At TGS2026, developer Yoyoyollie and publisher Top Hat Studios presented DELIVERY MUST COMPLETE, a cel-shaded dogfight roguelike whose official tagline calls it a fusion of Devil May Cry and Ace Combat. Players pick an aircraft and two special weapons, boost instead of throttling up gradually, and build combo ranks by downing enemies in succession. Ammo is infinite, cooldowns are not, and level-ups offer three parts to choose one from.
Capcom's Street Fighter 6, boosted by the announcement of Year 4 characters including Tifa from Final Fantasy VII and a 50% discount, reached first place in the Steam sales rankings for the week of June 8, 2026. Forza Horizon 6 held second place, while Wuthering Waves, amid a Cyberpunk collaboration, ranked third. Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve debuted at tenth place ahead of its October release.