Skip to main content
News

Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve will deliver "photorealistic rendering of your aircraft"

The story will be told through first-person sequences, a way to make it more personal, according to the developers.
Jonas Mäki Editor Sweden 9 April 2026

It was during last year's The Game Awards that Bandai Namco finally announced that it was time to return to the aerial Ace Combat series with an eighth instalment titled Wings of Theve. This will be the first new game in the series in seven years, so naturally a lot has happened since then.

Now, Project Aces has finally revealed a bit more about it and released a fairly substantial developer diary, and they've also posted a press release on PlayStation Blog. Thanks to this, we now know more about how the story is told, as well as some details about the graphics:

"To truly immerse each player, Project Aces engineered an innovation for the Ace Combat series: a first-person perspective during story scenes. New levels of immersion are possible not only due to this new perspective, but also the huge leap forward in photorealistic rendering of your aircraft, the environment, and, most importantly, that big, beautiful sky that's just begging for a battle."

The story of Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve revolves around the fictional country of Sotoa's invasion of the equally fictional Federation of Central Usea, where the elite force Wings of Theve naturally has a role to play. The squadron is led by the legendary pilot Rex, and you are his co-pilot, but when he dies, you are forced to shoulder the responsibility as leader and inherit his callsign.

Check out the impressive video below from what looks to be a thrilling action game with stunning graphics.

Editor Sweden Jonas Mäki has written for Gamereactor since 2002, becoming an editor in 2007. He covers the video game industry across news, releases and the business side, with a particular interest in sales figures and where the industry is heading.
Full profile Gamereactor author since 2007 · 12,193 published articles
Why trust Gamereactor
23 Editions Each with its own newsroom and its own scores.
1998 Publishing since Independently owned for the whole of it.
100% Hands-on Written from time with the game, never press material.
1–10 Network Score Every edition’s score, averaged and shown.