Ace Combat fans have long been hoping to get a remastered release of the PS2 trilogy, but sadly, Project Aces has no remaster plans in the pipeline.
Recently, we got to try out Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve, after which, we got to attend a roundtable interview with the game’s producer, Manabu Shimomoto.
One of the questions we asked Shimomoto was if plans for a remaster of the older Ace Combat games had been discussed within Project Aces. After all, a remaster of the PS2 trilogy is something that fans have been hoping to see for years now.
Sadly, we won’t see remasters anytime soon (if at all), as Shimomoto said that there are “no concrete plans to launch a remaster” of any of the older games. Instead of just leaving it at that, Shimomoto followed by saying that having real aircraft in the game is a key aspect of an Ace Combat game, and this is the main barrier to making remasters.
“One of the main characteristics of Ace Combat is that we incorporate real aircraft in the game,” said Shimomoto. “So, when I think about remastering past games in the series, [this aspect] hinders doing it.”
It has long been theorized by fans that licensing issues are the main reason why we haven’t gotten remasters or proper re-releases of the old games. Many believe that the licenses for the real-world aircraft have expired for the older games, meaning Bandai Namco can’t officially sell the older games. This theory also explains why Ace Combat 5 and 6 were given away as pre-order bonuses for Ace Combat 7, as this gets around expired licenses.
Shimomoto’s answer pretty much confirms that real-world aircraft licenses are the biggest roadblock to proper remasters of the older games. And given that he said having real-world planes is an important aspect of the series, we probably won’t see Project Aces do something like release a remaster of an older Ace Combat game but with fictionalized planes.
Even though they have no plans currently, Shimomoto did say that they are aware of the demand for it.
“We are well aware that some of the fans would like to play the past games, and I appreciate that,” said Shimomoto. “That is the reason why we try to make it so that they can play some of the games on current-gen platforms.”
Thus, it makes sense why they also announced recently that Ace Combat Zero will be given as a pre-order bonus for Wings of Theve. This is a similar case to Ace Combat 7’s pre-order bonus option.
While this is an interesting way of getting around the licensing restrictions without essentially giving the older games away for free, we still hope to see a more permanent way of getting access to and playing the older titles in the series.
Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve will be released on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC on October 2, 2026.