Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve is scheduled to launch on October 1, while buyers of its $90 deluxe edition can already access the game on Steam. Yet the PC release has run into an unusually specific and consequential complaint: players expected the included Ace Combat 0: The Belkan War bonus to be a separate application, but are finding it functions as DLC that depends on installing Wings of Theve.
The result is a Mixed Steam user-review status despite strong early sentiment around the new game itself. The frustration is not simply that a bonus is delivered as downloadable content. It is that the delivery method changes how, where and how easily players can use a much older game that was promoted as part of the pre-order package.
What the pre-order bonus includes
Pre-ordering Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve on any platform grants access to a port of Ace Combat 0: The Belkan War, a PlayStation 2-era entry held in high regard by many series fans. On consoles, The Belkan War is available as a standalone game. That distinction matters because a standalone application is independently installed and launched, rather than being treated as add-on content tied to another title.
On PC, players say an earlier Steam store listing described Ace Combat 0 as a standalone application separate from the full Ace Combat 8 game. The store page has since been updated to characterize it as DLC. Players now report that they must download Wings of Theve in order to start The Belkan War.
That is the heart of the dispute. A change in wording can seem minor when it concerns a storefront label, but “standalone” and “DLC” describe materially different forms of ownership and access in practice. A standalone app can generally be selected, installed and played on its own. DLC normally needs its parent game to be installed, and its functionality may be folded into that parent game’s Steam ecosystem.
Why the installation requirement has become the central issue
The storage contrast being cited by users is stark. One review describes Ace Combat 0 as roughly 4GB while putting the required Ace Combat 8 installation at 140GB. The broader report says the new game can take up around 150GB of storage. Either way, the practical objection is clear: accessing a comparatively compact classic can require a very large installation for a separate, newer release.
For players with roomy desktop storage, that may be an inconvenience. For Steam Deck owners, it can be a much more direct obstacle. Portable-PC storage is finite, and carrying a large installation solely to play an older bonus game is a very different proposition from installing that bonus by itself. The concern is not that The Belkan War cannot run on a Steam Deck; the stated complaint is the drive-space commitment imposed by its connection to Wings of Theve.
This is why the setup has landed badly even among people happy to see an official PC version of Ace Combat 0. For a series with a long history, an old favorite arriving on a new platform carries value precisely because it may be revisited independently of the latest release. Requiring a major contemporary game to act as the launcher and installation gate weakens that convenience.
Related coverage includes Ace Combat 8 Steam Reviews Turn Mixed Over Ace Combat 0 Pre-Order Bonus Setup.
Achievements and Steam activity are part of the backlash
Storage is only one part of the complaint. Players who collect Steam achievements are also objecting to the DLC arrangement because it means The Belkan War will not have its own Steam achievement set or separate activity tracker.
An achievement set is the collection of platform objectives assigned to a particular game. A separate activity tracker, meanwhile, records that title as its own game in a user’s library and play history. When an older game is delivered as DLC, its time and accomplishments can be associated with the parent title instead of receiving an independent page and identity.
For some players, that is a cosmetic detail. For achievement-focused users and people who care about keeping a clear history of what they played, it is a loss of recognition for a distinct game. It also conflicts with the expectation created by language suggesting that Ace Combat 0 would be its own application.
“I’m grateful to finally get to play the official PC version of supposedly one of the best games in the series, but it’s incredibly disappointing to see how it has been implemented on Steam.”
That reaction captures the unusual nature of this situation. The underlying bonus is desirable. The objection is to the PC packaging, rather than to the idea of bringing The Belkan War forward at all.
Separate performance complaints complicate the Steam picture
Not all negative user feedback is focused on the pre-order bonus. Reviews have also raised reports of memory leaks, recurring crashes and a lack of compatibility with third-party flight sticks.
A memory leak is a software problem in which a program continues to hold memory it no longer needs. Over time, that can increase memory use and contribute to degraded performance or instability. The available feedback identifies these as player-reported issues; it does not establish their scope, cause or whether they affect every configuration.
Flight-stick compatibility is particularly notable for a flight-action series. A third-party flight stick is a dedicated physical controller, usually offering an aircraft-style control layout. Players who own such hardware may reasonably expect it to work, but the current complaints indicate that some users have not been able to use their devices with the PC version. The supplied information does not specify which flight-stick models are affected or whether workarounds exist.
Those technical concerns mean the Mixed rating cannot be attributed exclusively to the Ace Combat 0 rollout. Still, the bonus’s installation requirement has become a clear focal point because it is easy for potential buyers to understand: a small legacy game, marketed in a way that led players to expect independence, now appears to require the installation of a much larger game.
Why clear storefront wording matters before release
Pre-order bonuses are part of a purchase decision, especially when they include a classic title that is otherwise unavailable on a platform. Whether that bonus is a separate app or dependent DLC affects storage planning, portable play, achievement tracking and how a buyer chooses to use the game. Those are functional differences, not merely differences in store-page terminology.
The revised Steam description now reflects the DLC model, but it does not erase the earlier expectation reported by players. Anyone considering the PC pre-order should therefore treat Ace Combat 0: The Belkan War as content attached to Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve, rather than assume it can be installed and launched independently.
It is also worth separating an access promise from the technical condition of the host game. If the bonus requires the new game’s installation, then crashes, storage pressure and controller support become relevant to the bonus experience too, even when someone’s primary interest is the older title. That coupling is exactly what a standalone release would have avoided.
The broader industry is also confronting questions about how games remain available once their main online structures change. For a different example of that preservation-and-access tension, Synduality: Echo of Ada’s planned offline PvE mode shows why the practical terms of access can matter as much as the game itself.
For now, the major facts for PC buyers are straightforward: Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve launches October 1; deluxe-edition owners have early Steam access; the Ace Combat 0 pre-order bonus is being handled as DLC on PC; and user reviews cite both that implementation and reported performance problems. The actual flying may be earning praise, but the runway onto the PC version has proven considerably bumpier.
