Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve isn’t out until Oct. 2, but Bandai Namco already has big plans for the franchise’s future. In an interview with Polygon, Ace Combat brand director Kazutoki Kono teased story DLC and Ace Combat 9 as he discussed the future of the series.
Kono’s comments came when discussing Bandai Namco Aces, a studio that was established in 2022 as a dedicated Ace Combat team. Before Bandai Namco Aces, the developers of an Ace Combat game would scatter to different projects between games, Kono explained. The new structure allowed the developers to focus on the series moving forward, working in specialized teams. In explaining how that worked in practice, Kono implied that the story team is already gearing up to work on something new once Ace Combat 8’s campaign is finished.
“We’ve already announced that Ace Combat 8 is going to have a live-service element to it, so that needs its own team to continually develop new content,” Kono said. “And I haven’t really spoken much about this yet, but even the main storyline, once the team is done, there’s another challenge awaiting them. And even further down the line, Ace Combat 9, perhaps, as we continue the franchise.”
Bandai Namco has yet to officially confirm story DLC for Ace Combat 8. An FAQ on the game’s website only teases future expansions: “The Ace Combat series has a long history of supporting players with additional post-launch content. While we are not ready to share details about future content plans at this time, we look forward to sharing more information in the future.”
Kono’s comment is the first indication we’ve gotten that more missions might be on the cards in future updates. That would be consistent with Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown, which added three additional missions to the game post-launch.
As for Kono invoking Ace Combat 9, that speaks to his confidence in Bandai Namco Aces as a “more self-sustaining” operation. He noted that the team’s goal is to focus on fostering institutional knowledge, creating technology that can be used on other projects, and “increase the potential for smaller teams to develop and take on different aspects of the game.”
“At the center of development are people, human talent. In order to support their growth and future path, we need that knowledge to be retained,” Kono said. “When every person individually is able to grow to a different level, what that does is create more development lines. Different teams can form around those people who have retained knowledge.”
Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve launches on Oct. 2 for PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X.