ACE COMBAT 8 Editions and Prices: Standard, Deluxe, Two Physical Packs

At a glance

There are four purchase paths, not two. Steam sells a Standard Edition at $69.99 and a Deluxe Edition at $89.99 in US dollars. The publisher then adds two physical products that are often confused with each other: a Joker Flight Pack, which wraps the Deluxe contents around an artbook and two vinyl records, and a separate Collector's Edition built around a larger artbook, a soundtrack USB and a steel case. On top of the editions there is a three-tier seasonal pass, and the Deluxe voucher that feeds it is described in two different ways by two different Bandai Namco pages.

Prices are the US Steam figures returned by the store API, and they are the only prices this page states. Regional pricing differs, and the publisher does not publish one global price list for the game.

What each edition actually contains

The Deluxe Edition contents are short enough to list in full, and the publisher repeats the same four items on the official game page and in its original release-date announcement.

• ACE COMBAT 8: WINGS OF THEVE — the full game, not a cut-down build.
• Three days of early access — described in detail on the release status page, and no longer available now that the game has launched.
• PREMIUM ACE PASS PLUS Voucher — one season of pass content and rewards. This is the item covered in the voucher section below.
• Customizable Cosmetic Set — listed by the publisher as the F-4E Mobius Squadron 25th Anniversary skin, the F/A-18C Team Zvezda skin, the Tasha Costume Set and Scarlet Missile Smoke. The publisher footnotes two of these as usable in online mode, and two as usable in online mode plus campaign mode after completing all missions; it also warns that content may vary at redemption.

Two add-ons are listed for sale separately on Steam, which is worth knowing before assuming an item is exclusive to an edition. One is named ACE COMBAT 8 - Playable Aircraft: F-14A and priced at $4.99, and the store describes it as granting the playable aircraft F-14A. The other is named ACE COMBAT 8 - Customizable Cosmetic Set at $9.99, described as containing aircraft skins, an online lobby avatar outfit and an upgrade part for online mode.

The pre-order bonus

Two items were attached to pre-orders of any edition, per the publisher's release-date announcement: the playable aircraft F-14A Tomcat and ACE COMBAT ZERO: THE BELKAN WAR. The official game page states the same pair in its edition area.

Both of those bonuses were tied to ordering before release, and the game has since launched. The F-14A is also sold as a paid add-on, so it is not lost to anyone who missed the window. ACE COMBAT ZERO is a different situation entirely — it depends on whether you already hold the bonus, and it has its own page: the ACE COMBAT ZERO standalone status page.

ACE PASS: three tiers, not two

The ACE PASS is a seasonal progression track that runs in ACE COMBAT ONLINE, and the publisher's FAQ describes three tiers. Two of them are paid.

Four further details come from the online section of the same official FAQ and matter if you are weighing a pass purchase:

• The pass updates every two months, in the publisher's wording.
• In Season 1 the aircraft ADFX-02 Morgan -PIXY- is the Level 1 reward. A separate FAQ answer says a Deluxe voucher redeems it immediately, and that it is playable in online mode straight away.
• Campaign use is gated. The publisher states the aircraft becomes usable in campaign mode only once all campaign missions are completed.
• Pass aircraft are not permanent exclusives. The FAQ says playable aircraft included in the PREMIUM ACE PASS are planned to be made available for separate purchase after the corresponding season ends.

On monetisation generally, the publisher answers two of the most common questions in flat terms: there are currently no plans to include consumables, either for purchase or as pass rewards, and the game does not include paid loot box mechanics or other randomised paid rewards. Steam separately lists In-App Purchases among the game's features, which is consistent with a pass being sold inside the game.

The voucher: two official wordings that disagree

This is the one point on the page where the publisher's own material conflicts, and it is not a detail that can be split down the middle by picking the more plausible version. Two Bandai Namco pages answer the same question — what does the Deluxe voucher redeem? — and give different answers.

The disagreement is not confined to that one sentence, which is what makes it worth spelling out rather than resolving. On the same official game site page, the tier answer says "The PREMIUM ACE PASS PLUS can be unlocked via a voucher included in the ACE COMBAT 8 Deluxe Edition", and the Deluxe contents list in the edition area says "PREMIUM ACE PASS PLUS Voucher" — both of which point one way. The Europe support FAQ then says, in a different answer on the same page, that players "use their voucher to redeem the PREMIUM ACE PASS", pointing the other way.

The two tiers differ in exactly one stated respect — the PLUS tier adds a 30-level skip on top of the PREMIUM rewards. So the practical question the conflict leaves open is whether the voucher includes that skip. That is a reading of the two documents, not a statement from either of them.

The physical editions: two products, two lists

The publisher sells two different physical products for this game, and their contents are not the same list. They also sit in two different places on the official game site, which is why so many summaries merge them.

The Joker Flight Pack is the Deluxe contents with a book and two records added. In the publisher's wording its full list is the base game, the three days of early access, the Premium Ace Pass Plus voucher, the customizable cosmetic set, "ACES at WAR: A HISTORY 2029 (200+ pages)" and "2 LP Vinyls with Slipcover and Slipmat". The Collector's Edition is a separate bundle: it lists the same Premium Ace Pass Plus voucher and customizable cosmetic set as the Deluxe Edition, and adds a 212-page "ACES at WAR" artbook, a Joker Squadron Sticker Set, a Soundtrack USB of 31 selected in-game tracks and a Multi Steel Case. Where a summary gives the pack a soundtrack USB or a steel case, it is describing the Collector's Edition.

The page counts differ by channel rather than being unpublished. The official game site's edition selector writes the Joker Flight Pack book as "200+ pages"; the Bandai Namco official store in Europe gives that artbook as 208 pages at 21 × 29.7 cm, and the United States store prints 208 full-colour inner pages at 8.5 × 11 in. The 212-page figure belongs to the Collector's Edition artbook, which the game page lists under the shorter name "ACES at WAR". This page reports each list as its own source states it instead of picking one number for all of them.

Availability differs by channel. In the publisher's own wording the Joker Flight Pack is sold exclusively through the Bandai Namco official store and is currently offered there for the digital PC Steam platform only, with the game supplied as a Steam code on a printed card; the European store lists it as a pre-order product, and the United States store has carried it at $149.99. The European news page also describes a larger Premium Joker Flight Pack that adds a 7 cm woven Wings of Theve patch and an XXL LED gaming mousepad. Prices, stock and platform options change, so check the store for your region rather than assuming the contents are identical everywhere.

Buying after launch, and what is not sold

• The Deluxe Edition is still on sale. The publisher's FAQ says so directly, and adds that it "does not include the early access bonus available with digital pre-orders of the Deluxe Edition". The difference between the two editions is now the cosmetic set and the voucher.
• No demo has been announced. The publisher's Steam announcement feed contains no demo post, and no demo is listed on the store page as checked. If a demo appears, it will show up there.
• No consumables, no paid randomised rewards. Quoted from the publisher's FAQ rather than inferred from the price list.
• DLC is genuinely unannounced. The FAQ says the series has a long history of post-launch content and that details are not ready to share. That is a statement that more is coming, not a statement about what.

Where the game can be bought, and on which systems, is a separate question and is covered on the platform availability page.