{"id":54912,"date":"2025-12-12T16:06:19","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T07:06:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=54912"},"modified":"2025-12-12T16:31:39","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T07:31:39","slug":"ace-combat-8-wings-of-theve-brings-new-in-house-cloud-engine-a-new-take-on-cinematic-scenes-and-10000-square-kilometer-map","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/ace-combat-8-wings-of-theve-brings-new-in-house-cloud-engine-a-new-take-on-cinematic-scenes-and-10000-square-kilometer-map\/","title":{"rendered":"Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve brings new in-house cloud engine, a new take on cinematic scenes and 10,000 square kilometer map\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>During The Game Awards 2025, Bandai Namco Entertainment surprised Ace Combat fans with a long-awaited announcement of the series\u2019 next mainline entry. Titled <strong>Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve<\/strong>, the new flight shooter will launch in 2026 for PC (Steam), PS5 and Xbox Series X\u2758S. Along with the announcement, Ace Combat series director Kazutoki Kono and Ace Combat 8 producer Manabu Shimomoto shared some details about the new game in an interview with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.famitsu.com\/article\/202512\/60393\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Famitsu<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"ACE COMBAT 8: WINGS OF THEVE Announcement Trailer\" width=\"1160\" height=\"653\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/JQYx_867ua0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the developers, work on Ace Combat 8 started back in 2020, made possible by the massive success of its predecessor AC7 (which has sold over 7 million units to date). While a big goal of the project was to make a modern Ace Combat game that could hold its ground among recent cutting-edge, high-budget games, the devs were aware \u201cthat not everything should be new.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe kept the things fans have loved for 30 years, and thought about what changes would please them,\u201d Shimomoto says. The three pillars they identified as fundamental to the Ace Combat series&#8217; identity, and thus the new entry too, were the exhilaration of freely flying through the sky; the excitement of shooting down enemies based on your own judgement; and the sense of accomplishment from overcoming challenges and becoming an ace pilot.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1430\" height=\"804\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1430px) 100vw, 1430px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/20251212-54912-001jpg.jpg\" alt=\"Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve\" class=\"wp-image-54915\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/20251212-54912-001jpg.jpg 1430w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/20251212-54912-001jpg-380x214.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/20251212-54912-001jpg-768x432.jpg 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>On the other hand, Ace Combat 8 will bring some interesting technical innovations. Though it\u2019s built in Unreal Engine 5, the game uses Bandai Namco Aces\u2019s new proprietary cloud engine Cloudly, replacing the third-party weather tool trueSKY. Thanks to this, Kono says his team was able to push past some of the limitations they previously faced. Clouds will be more layered and differ in characteristics depending on altitude. Like in AC7, the realism of the environment is not only cosmetic, but functional, meant to give the player various types of feedback. The increased attention to visual cues means pilots will spend less time checking instruments.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Another characteristic of AC8 are its first-person real-time cinematic scenes. While story progression will work like in previous titles for the most part, during story scenes, the player will be able to move their line of sight and look around \u2013 this decision was made to give the player the feeling that they\u2019re still involved, as opposed to a fully static cutscene. \u201cBy deliberately looking away, you may discover new things, such as what other characters are doing in the background while the conversation is happening,\u201d Kono explains. As a treat, the team has also implemented cockpit cameras for some scenes, displaying pilots as they interact.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1430\" height=\"798\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1430px) 100vw, 1430px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/20251212-54912-002.jpg\" alt=\"Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve\" class=\"wp-image-54916\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/20251212-54912-002.jpg 1430w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/20251212-54912-002-380x212.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/20251212-54912-002-768x429.jpg 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Fans of the series will be happy to know that Sunao Katabuchi, who wrote the scenarios for AC4, 5 and 7, came back as scenario writer for the new entry. His involvement, combined with a new dogfight map spanning 10,000 square kilometres, makes Ace Combat 8 sound like a promising comeback for the franchise.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve<strong> <\/strong>will launch in 2026 for PC (<a href=\"https:\/\/store.steampowered.com\/app\/2288340\/ACE_COMBAT_8_WINGS_OF_THEVE\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Steam<\/a>), PS5 and Xbox Series X\u2758S.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ace Combat series director Kazutoki Kono and Ace Combat 8 producer Manabu Shimomoto share details about the new entry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":54914,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-54912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve brings new in-house cloud engine, a new take on cinematic scenes and 10,000 square kilometer map\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Ace Combat series director Kazutoki Kono and Ace Combat 8 producer Manabu Shimomoto share details about the new entry.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/ace-combat-8-wings-of-theve-brings-new-in-house-cloud-engine-a-new-take-on-cinematic-scenes-and-10000-square-kilometer-map\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve brings new in-house cloud engine, a new take on cinematic scenes and 10,000 square kilometer map\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ace Combat series director Kazutoki Kono and Ace Combat 8 producer Manabu Shimomoto share details about the new entry.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/ace-combat-8-wings-of-theve-brings-new-in-house-cloud-engine-a-new-take-on-cinematic-scenes-and-10000-square-kilometer-map\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-12-12T07:06:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-12-12T07:31:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/20251212-54912-header.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1435\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"805\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Amber V\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Amber V\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve brings new in-house cloud engine, a new take on cinematic scenes and 10,000 square kilometer map\u00a0 - 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Currently devoted to growing Automaton West to the size of its Japanese sister-site, while making sure to keep news concise and developer stories deep and stimulating.","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/author\/amber-vjestica\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54912"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54912\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54924,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54912\/revisions\/54924"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}