Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve early access is coming to three platforms. Check the supported platforms, early access details and release information.
Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve is getting an early access release across three platforms, giving players a chance to jump into the skies before the official launch. This is a combat game with missions and modern aircraft, gamers will experience high-quality visuals and smooth gameplay.
If you’re planning to play it early, here’s everything you need to know about its early access availability and supported platforms.
Get early access of this game on three platforms — PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC via Steam. Bandai Namco announced the release of Ace Combat 8 worldwide on October 2, 2026.
Buying it is simple. The Standard Edition can be bought digitally on your console of choice, or as a physical disc on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, depending on your country and retailer. PC players buy through Steam.
You can get early access from the Deluxe Edition which unlocks a three-day early access window at $89.99 price if you pre-ordered before launch. The standard price is $69.99 but check the availability in your region before buying anything since pricing and disc availability vary by country.
There’s also a pre-order bonus worth knowing about. Pre-ordering the Standard Edition adds the playable F-14A and a ported copy of the 2006 game Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War.
You don’t need to have played any earlier Ace Combat game. The story is self-contained, so newcomers won’t need to do any prior research. It plays like an arcade flight-combat shooter with a few ideas borrowed from combat flight sims, so you spend your time dogfighting and don’t have to study a flight manual first. When you finish the campaign, there’s also ACE COMBAT ONLINE, a co-op and multiplayer mode with cross-platform play for up to eight players.
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Reviewers found all three platforms play well, but there are differences.
PS5 Pro is the best console version, according to Respec’s testing. On the base PS5, Xbox Series X and PS5 Pro, you can choose between a 30fps quality mode and a 60fps performance mode. Missions look and feel great on both the base PS5 and the Series X, and the differences show up more in the hangar. Even the Pro isn’t flawless: one reviewer saw brief drops on PS5 when a lot of explosions go off at once.
Xbox Series X matches the base PS5 in mission play, and it has a useful extra. Quick Resume support helps a lot given the load times. However, reliable performance tests for the Series S aren’t available, so its performance remains unclear.
PC looks strong on capable hardware. One reviewer called the performance rock-solid. Handheld players should be careful, though: one reviewer says PC handhelds less powerful than the Xbox Ally X will struggle, and 60 FPS on a handheld isn’t realistic yet.
Also, the Steam version may be the one to wait on if your GPU is old. I haven’t seen published minimum specs, so check the Steam page before you buy.
This is the one point where reviewers disagree, so here are the numbers as reported:
My guess is that roughly 15 hours is realistic for most players, with the top of the range reserved for people who retry missions. Difficulty and how much you skip cutscenes will decide where you land.
Whatever your total, the missions vary. Some ask you to wipe out everything in an area, others have you spot disguised armed ships, fly low to dodge radar, or escort friendly aircraft home. There’s also replay value: Free Mission mode lets you go back and improve your grade. Critics are broadly positive. Metacritic scores run from 86 to 90 depending on platform, and OpenCritic sits at 89.
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If you own a PS5 Pro, that’s the version to get. On a base PS5 or Xbox Series X, you’ll get a smooth 60fps performance mode and a lovely 30fps quality mode, so pick based on which console you already have.
On PC, buy if you have a reasonably modern desktop or laptop GPU, and skip it if you’re planning to play on a weaker handheld. And if you only want the campaign, budget around 15 hours and be prepared for it to run longer.
Discover Gears of War: E-Day, the brutal origin story of Marcus Fenix and Dom Santiago, set during the devastating Emergence Day.
When the announcement for Gears of War: E-Day dropped, I got actual chills. We’ve spent years chainsawing our way through Locust hordes, exploring the aftermath of a broken world, and passing the torch to a new generation. But for those of us who have been revving Lancers since 2006, the story always felt like it started exactly one second after the most important event in Sera’s history.
Now, we’re finally going back to Emergence Day.
Seeing a young Marcus Fenix and Dom Santiago side-by-side again hits differently. They aren’t the hardened, cynical veterans we met in the original trilogy. Marcus doesn’t have the heavy weight of a treason charge and a prison sentence on his shoulders yet, and Dom hasn’t lost Maria or his kids. They’re just two brothers-in-arms who think they’ve finally seen the end of the Pendulum Wars, only to watch the crust of their planet shatter and spill out a nightmare nobody even knew existed.
What excites most players isn’t just the massive visual leap—though seeing Locust drones look terrifying and visceral is a huge win. It’s the shift in tone. The original Gears was basically a survival-horror shooter disguised as an action game. The Locust weren’t just cannon fodder; they were actual monsters lurking in the dark. Over time, the series naturally evolved into a massive sci-fi blockbuster, but E-Day promises to drag us back into the claustrophobic, desperate terror of day one.
Think about the sheer panic of that lore. The Locust didn’t just invade; they erupted from underneath cities, homes, and streets. There were no designated battlefields or front lines. For Marcus and Dom, every corner turned and every shadow cast is going to be a fight for pure survival. We are finally going to experience the chaotic, brutal reality of a military force completely blindsided by an enemy from below. They don’t know how to fight them yet. The weapons and tactics we take for granted as players are going to have to be invented on the fly in the middle of a slaughter.
For a long-time fans, this feels like a love letter to the absolute core of the franchise. It’s not about saving the world anymore—it’s about surviving the afternoon. Getting to experience the forging of Marcus and Dom’s legendary bond in the crucible of Emergence Day is exactly the kind of gritty, heart-wrenching storytelling this series was built on.
👉 Early Access For Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve at Three Platforms
Gears of War: E-Day launches on October 6, 2026, players get early access on October 1 with Premium Edition. E-Day is a prequel which takes place fourteen years before the original Gears of War and follows Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago on the day the Locust Horde first erupts from underground. It’s the starting point of the whole timeline, so you can skip the earlier games and still follow it.
The platform picture is where people get tripped up. E-Day is coming to Xbox Series X and Series S, to Windows PC through Steam, and to Xbox Game Pass on day one. It is not coming to PlayStation 5. Microsoft canceled the PS5 version and made it an Xbox console exclusive, even though the franchise reached PlayStation with last year’s remaster of the first game. An Xbox One version isn’t happening either, since the game is built for current hardware. If you’re on PS5, there is no workaround. If you’re on PC or Game Pass, you’re covered.
The number most players care about is how long the campaign runs. The Coalition’s creative director, Matt Searcy, told IGN it’s the longest campaign the studio has built, at over 14 hours, with more collectibles than any previous Gears game. Earlier entries mostly land between 9 and 11.5 hours, so that’s a real jump. It is the studio’s own estimate, though, and independent playtime numbers won’t exist until players finish it.
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Gears of War: E-Day brings Marcus and Dom back to Emergence Day which creates a chance for all the gamers to experience the event that shaped everything that came after, while the darker survival-horror tone should make the Locust feel dangerous again.
The 14 hours is a gamble for a series known for tight, punchy campaigns. Longer Gears can feel richer or just feel stretched, and the answer depends on pacing. Launch week reviews will show which one this is.
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PS5 Games may be playable on PC with KytyPS5. Learn how the emulator works, game compatibility, performance, and what PC users should know.
The PS5 launched nearly six years ago, and for most of that time, running its games on a PC felt like a fantasy. Thanks to KytyPS5, an experimental emulator that supported many games to make this possible at 40-60 FPS. Five PS5 Games reported as fully playable with minor or no issue and a growing list of others that reach gameplay. Lighter games hold around 60 FPS, while heavy titles like GTA V and Demon’s Souls still struggle.
The results are promising, but not every game is in good shape. Here’s where each game stands.
KytyPS5 Games compatibility can be completed end‑to‑end with only minor glitches; no major crashes blocking progress. These are the only titles repeatedly described in sources as fully playable or “almost flawlessly” on KytyPS5:
The first-two games get into actual gameplay and hold around 60 FPS. But the rest of them show the emulator’s limits. These games run, but with low frame rates, bugs, or crashes:
The 60 FPS figure is an estimate based on how light the games are, not a confirmed benchmark. These games list is small, but for an emulator this young, any fully playable PS5 title is a real milestone.
KytyPS5 can boot the PS5 build of Grand Theft Auto V and reach the in-game menus, and in later tests it rendered part of the North Yankton prologue with working audio, HUD, and direct control. Frame rates in those clips have been reported around 40–60 FPS on very high-end hardware, but with visual instability (flickering assets/lighting) and crashes after a few minutes or before the first major set-piece.
KytyPS5 is one part of a wider PS5 emulation push. SharpEmu is another open-source project with its own growing compatibility list. SharpEmu reportedly ran 12 of 55 tested games, with six reaching a playable 60 FPS in the project’s testing with minor flaws or no flaw:
Demon’s Souls can now reach gameplay, but the compatibility report notes major graphical problems and heavy performance issues, so it’s nowhere near smooth yet.
KytyPS5 and SharpEmu are experimental, open-source PS5 emulators, and both do best with lighter games, but they’re progressing differently. SharpEmu currently has the more organized track record. Its official list has seven games that can be completed with minor or no issues.
KytyPS5 has fewer fully playable titles but it seems to be pushing harder into demanding 3D games. It has demonstrated gameplay for GTA V, Astro Bot, and Demon’s Souls, although performance remains inconsistent, with crashes, bugs, and frame rates frequently dropping below 60 FPS.
Some games appear on both lists, such as Tomb Raider IV-VI, Pac-Man World Re-Pac, Disgaea 6, and Demon’s Souls, and Demon’s Souls struggles on both. So if you want games you can finish today, SharpEmu looks like the safer pick, while KytyPS5 is the one to watch for bigger blockbusters.
AnyPS5 is taking a completely different route. Instead of using a conventional emulator, it converts console executables to run natively on Windows and Linux. Reportedly, there’s no emulator running underneath the game at all, which could avoid some of the overhead of traditional emulation. It’s still very early in development, though.
PS5 Games can be playable with the KytyPS5 emulator and lightweight games, especially 2D titles and remasters, run best, while demanding 3D games like GTA V and Demon’s Souls still struggle with performance and stability. That’s normal for an emulator at this stage. A gaming PC can’t replace a real PS5 yet, but the direction is encouraging.
If you want to try KytyPS5, start with the lighter titles. SharpEmu has also tested 55 games recently in which few are playable and many still fail to boot. If you’re waiting for the big blockbusters, be patient, because these numbers will likely improve as development continues.
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