Today, Bandai Namco released episode 1 of Hour Zero, the live-action prequel series dedicated to Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve.
The series, which was teased a few days ago, starts with Josh Holloway playing Ledger, the commander of a flight of F-18s from the FCU Billhook as he deals with the loss of a wingman and the initial phase of the conquest of the Federation of Central Usea by the Republic of Sotoa.
The short is actually great, definitely contributing to setting the stage and increasing the hype for the game that will launch soon.
The calendar for the remainder of the series is as follows:
- Thursday, September 17: Act 2
- Wednesday, September 23: Act 3
- Tuesday, September 29: Epilogue
You can watch the first episode below.
Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve will release on October 2, 2026, for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S, following the announcement from a few months ago. If you want to see more, you can check out a developer diary, an action-packed trailer, an extensive gameplay reveal, the characters, plenty more gameplay, a look at some of the fighters included in the game, the multiplayer, and the story.
It’s the latest installment of the popular Ace Combat franchise, which culminated a few years ago with Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown, which has broken all sales records for the series by shipping over 7 million units, after a period in which it remained dormant.
If you’d like to read more flight simulation news (yes, we consider Ace Combat a flight simulator-lite here, and you can’t convince us otherwise), you can find plenty in our latest roundup article from yesterday.
If you want to go further back, we have a handy overview video of the major flight simulation news in the past week. You can watch it below. As usual, leaving a like and a comment and subscribing to our growing YouTube channel is extremely helpful.
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