Bandai Namco’s internal development team, Project Aces, announced that Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown won’t be ready in time for the planned October release. The developer pushed the launch date into 2018.
Bandai Namco’s Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown was one of the earliest announced titles for the then-upcoming Sony PlayStation VR. Sony revealed the Ace Combat 7 announcement trailer during the PlayStation Experience event in December 2015—more than a year before the PSVR’s eventual release. We first understood that Ace Combat 7 would be a PSVR exclusive, but we later found out that Project Aces is building the game for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. Only part of the game is exclusive to PSVR.
Bandai Namco planned to release Ace Combat 7 in October 2017, but the team at Project Aces needs more time to polish the game. The developer said that releasing the game this year “would compromise [its] goal for the game.”
Project Aces is using Unreal Engine 4 to build Ace Combat 7, which allows the developer to simulate dogfighting at a higher level than ever before. The developer said that “at no other time in Ace Combat’s 20+ year history” could it provide such a realistic representation of flight combat, complete with details such as cloud cover and air currents. Project Aces wants to use those technologies proficiently, so it’s taking the time to do so.
Bandai Namco didn’t give a specific time frame for the new Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown release date. All we know for sure is that the game won’t be out until 2018. Project Aces said it would have more to say about the game at E3 2017, including a demo of a non-VR mission.
