Ace Combat Zero Pre-Order Bonus Expected to Get Standalone Steam App

Bandai Namco Entertainment announced on October 13 that ACE COMBAT ZERO, the Steam pre-order bonus for ACE COMBAT 8: WINGS OF THEVE, is expected to be distributed as a standalone application, according to automaton-media.com. A specific distribution date has not been revealed.

The standalone version would launch without installing ACE COMBAT 8, in addition to the current version that players reach by selecting it from the ACE COMBAT 8 launch options. Final confirmation and operation checks are being carried out ahead of distribution.

The standalone application is only for players who own the pre-order bonus copy of ACE COMBAT ZERO and is not a new way to obtain the game. Save data will be shared between the two versions through Steam Cloud.

In the current Steam pre-order bonus version, ACE COMBAT ZERO is installed together with ACE COMBAT 8, a package of roughly 140GB. ACE COMBAT ZERO was originally released in 2006 for the PS2.

On October 1, Bandai Namco said ACE COMBAT ZERO could not be distributed as a standalone app on Steam due to licensing restrictions and platform specifications, and apologized for the lack of prior explanation causing inconvenience. On October 2, the company reported that after discussions with platform partners and related companies, it expected to move forward with consideration of changing to a standalone app distribution on Steam.

An update including fixes for some ACE COMBAT 8 issues is planned soon. ACE COMBAT 8: WINGS OF THEVE was released in October 2026, and at the time of writing held 82% positive reviews out of 14,874 Steam user reviews, with a "Very Positive" status.