Ace Combat is an arcade-style combat flight simulation video game series by Project Aces, an internal development team of Bandai Namco Entertainment, formerly Namco. Debuting in 1995 with Air Combat for the PlayStation, the series includes eight mainline installments, multiple spin-offs, and other forms of media, such as novels, model kits, and soundtrack albums. Since 2012, the series has been developed primarily by Bandai Namco Studios through its internal development group, Project Aces.
The Ace Combat franchise emphasizes fast-paced action and dramatic, anime-styled plots with semi-realistic gameplay; for example, aircraft have flight dynamics controls and can stall, but are also able to carry dozens of missiles. The series features a range of aircraft including accurate or slightly modified representations of modern military aircraft, prototypes that were never adopted (or even built) in real life, and fictional boss-type superweapons. The main series of games is set in "Strangereal", a fictional universe loosely based on the real world, featuring similar events and entities but with an entirely different history largely centering around advanced technology and the aftermath of an asteroid impact event in the 1990s; certain games, however, are set in fictional renditions of the real world.
As of 2023, the Ace Combat franchise has shipped over 20 million copies worldwide, and has established itself as one of the longest running arcade flight action franchises.
Most installments in the Ace Combat series are set in "Strangereal", the series' fictional universe. Strangereal's Earth features entirely different nations, geography, continents, and history compared to the real world, though some nations, locations, and events are loosely based on those from real life, and most aircraft in the series are real models with few alterations.
Strangereal is very similar to the real modern world, but with significantly more advanced technology that allows for the development of superweapons and theoretical devices such as aerial warships, laser weapons, railguns, submarine and airborne aircraft carriers, orbital weapons, mass drivers, lethal autonomous weapons, nearly-sentient artificial intelligence, and advanced experimental aircraft. Nuclear weapons exist, but international agreements and nuclear terrorism are implied to have inhibited their development and use, resulting in a lack of nuclear deterrence and a greater focus on conventional weaponry in arms races. This makes large-scale interstate warfare common, and many nations field large militaries with diverse equipment, develop superweapons, train elite special forces-esque "ace" fighter squadrons, or hire mercenaries to augment their forces.
Most Ace Combat games are set after a 1999 impact event in which the asteroid "Ulysses 1994XF04", on a collision course with Earth, split into numerous fragments, some of which were destroyed by anti-asteroid weaponry but others still struck the planet, causing widespread destruction and global crises. The international tensions caused by the Ulysses impact and its aftermath play a large role throughout the series, and some of the games' superweapons are, or originate from, anti-Ulysses devices. Another major event in the series' continuity is the 1995 "Belkan War", a World War II-esque conflict in which the advanced ultranationalist nation of Belka attempted to invade neighboring countries during an internal crisis, was repelled by an international coalition, and used nuclear weapons on their own territory to prevent a retaliatory invasion, causing their defeat and earning them global condemnation and scorn; Belkan nationalists seeking revenge for their defeat play major roles in some of the games.
As shown in Ace Combat 3: Electrosphere, the nations of Strangereal shown in most of the series are eventually superseded by sovereign megacorporations. Strangereal was later established as part of Bandai Namco's United Galaxy Space Force shared universe, representing the earliest period in its timeline, in which the nations of Strangereal unite to form a world government around 2090.
Ace Combat: Joint Assault, Assault Horizon, and Infinity are not set in Strangereal, and are instead set in their own fictionalized versions of the real world, albeit with technology similar to Strangereal's.
Ace Combat has been a consistent commercial success, with most mainline installments reaching over one million units shipped. Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown is the most successful title with over 7 million copies shipped by 2026, followed by Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies and Air Combat. The games have sold well predominantly in North America and Japan, where over 75% of all revenue was generated from the series by 2008. In total, the Ace Combat franchise has shipped over 20 million copies.
