Ace Combat brand director Kazutoki Kono has pointed to story DLC for Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve and, further out, an Ace Combat 9, in an interview with Polygon published on September 10. The game launches on October 2 for PlayStation 5, Windows PC and Xbox Series X.
Kono raised both while describing how Bandai Namco Aces works. The studio was established in 2022 as a dedicated Ace Combat team; before it existed, Kono told Polygon, developers scattered to other projects between entries in the series. The new structure keeps specialised teams together across releases.
We've already announced that Ace Combat 8 is going to have a live-service element to it, so that needs its own team to continually develop new content. And I haven't really spoken much about this yet, but even the main storyline, once the team is done, there's another challenge awaiting them. And even further down the line, Ace Combat 9, perhaps, as we continue the franchise.
Bandai Namco has not confirmed story DLC for Ace Combat 8. An FAQ on the game’s website goes no further than noting the series’ history of post-launch support, saying the publisher is "not ready to share details about future content plans at this time". Polygon notes that Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown added three missions after launch.
On Ace Combat 9, Kono framed the possibility in terms of the studio becoming what he called a more self-sustaining operation, with a goal of retaining institutional knowledge, building technology reusable on other projects and increasing the potential for smaller teams to take on different aspects of a game.
At the center of development are people, human talent. In order to support their growth and future path, we need that knowledge to be retained. When every person individually is able to grow to a different level, what that does is create more development lines. Different teams can form around those people who have retained knowledge.
Bandai Namco has not officially confirmed the story DLC, and Kono framed a ninth game only as a possibility. Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve remains scheduled for October 2.