An upcoming remaster/port of a PlayStation 2 game from 2006 could end up being one of the rarest games ever. In recent years, a number of video game publishers have started remaking, remastering, or simply porting over their most popular titles from the PS2 era to modern platforms. This has resulted in new iterations of titles like Resident Evil 4, Silent Hill 2, Metal Gear Solid 3, and countless others. And while this trend is undoubtedly going to continue in the future, none of these upcoming games will likely be as hard to get ahold of when compared to one 2026 re-release.
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Coming by way of Bandai Namco, the company has recently announced that it will be porting Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War to PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. Released originally in March 2006, Ace Combat Zero is widely considered one of the best entries in the long-running jet fighter series. As such, news that it’s now going to be playable outside of PS2 consoles for the first time ever is a pretty big deal.
Sadly, this new PS5 and Xbox Series X/S version of Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War is going to be quite hard to come by. Shockingly, Bandai Namco is only including this port as a pre-order bonus for those who buy the upcoming Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve. While one would think that Ace Combat Zero would also be available to purchase digitally on its own across the PS Store and Xbox Store, Bandai Namco isn’t going to make it available in this capacity. As such, the only way that anyone will ever be able to own the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S version of the title is to buy Ace Combat 8 ahead of its arrival.
Believe it or not, this isn’t the first time that Bandai Namco has done this. With the launch of Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown, the company gave out free copies of Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War on PS4. This version of AC4 has since never been re-released on its own, which suggests that the same fate will fall upon this new iteration of Ace Combat Zero.
Essentially, if you’re a longtime Ace Combat fan or you’re someone who is simply interested in checking out Ace Combat Zero on new platforms, you’ll want to ensure that you pre-order Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve sooner rather than later. Those who fail to do so will have to continue to resort to playing the original game on PS2, barring a proper remaster or remake of the title coming about down the road.
As for its launch, Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve will arrive later this fall on October 2nd.
