TL;DR: Bandai Namco has revealed the official system requirements for playing Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve on PC, surprising fans with its unexpectedly steep hardware demands. Scheduled for release on October 2 for PS5, Xbox Series, and PC, it is the eighth mainline installment in the franchise and the sequel to 2019's Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown.
The minimum processor requirement for playing Ace Combat 8 at low settings is relatively modest, but gamers will still need an SSD with at least 125GB of free space, a graphics card that supports hardware-accelerated ray tracing, and DirectX 12 with Shader Model 6.6 or higher. The game also requires Windows 11, meaning PCs still running Windows 10 will have to be upgraded to run it.
Minimum System Requirements (1080p Upscaled / 30FPS, low settings)
- Processor: Intel Core i7-10700K / AMD Ryzen 5 3600X
- Memory: 16GB RAM
- Graphics: Nvidia RTX 2060 (6GB) or AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT (8GB)
Recommended System Requirements (1080p Upscaled / 60fps, medium settings)
- Processor: Intel Core i7-12700K or AMD Ryzen 5 5600X
- Memory: 32GB RAM
- Graphics: Nvidia RTX 3070 (8GB) or AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT (16GB)
Bandai Namco did not announce the requirements to play the game at max settings and at higher resolutions.
Built using Unreal Engine 5, Ace Combat 8 will feature fast-paced, arcade-style flight gameplay with hyper-realistic visuals and thrilling combat action, including high-octane aerial dogfights against enemy pilots and former allies. It will also feature massive land battleship boss fights, including Land Battleship No. 1, Xanthos, during Campaign Mission 9, "The Land Battleship Blockade."
The Steam listing for Ace Combat 8 confirms that the game will use Denuvo Anti-Tamper as third-party DRM, despite concerns about activation restrictions and the additional strain it could place on hardware resources. The store page also notes that the game will use kernel-level Easy Anti-Cheat for its multiplayer modes and limit players to five activations per day.
Ace Combat 8 is set in July 2029, when the Federation of Central Usea is invaded by the neighboring Republic of Sotoa. Players assume the role of a combat pilot and lead an uprising against the occupying forces. Despite lacking the resources to match the invaders, the surviving members of the FCU military fight back against the Sotoan occupation in an effort to reclaim their homeland.