Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve Uses Custom In-House Engine to Generate Layered Clouds in the Sky

Just a few days after officially unveiling the next title in the Ace Combat franchise—Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve—during The Game Awards 2025, series director Kazutoki Kono and producer for the upcoming game Manabu Shimomoto revealed more details about the title in an interview with Famitsu. As caught and translated by Automaton Media, the duo revealed that development on Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve had started all the way back in 2020.

While the studio wanted to ensure that it was making a brand new title that would go toe-to-toe against any other big-budget release, they also spoke about how the title would see the return of aspects of the Ace Combat series that its fans have enjoyed. Shimomoto explained that, “We kept the things fans have loved for 30 years, and thought about what changes would please them,” before going on to explain the three pillars that form the identity of the Ace Combat franchise—the exhilaration of freely flying through the sky, the excitement of shooting down enemies based on your own judgment, and sense of accomplishment from overcoming challenges.

As for some of the newer things that we will see in Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve, the title includes a brand new engine that will work in tandem with Unreal Engine 5 to help generate the in-game clouds. This new engine, dubbed Cloudly, was created in-house to serve as a replacement to third-party tool trueSKY, and Kono noted that it was useful for the team to help create more realistic clouds with layers and different characteristics.

Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve will also feature real-time cinematic cutscenes that take place in the first-person perspective. This means that, when in a cutscene from their character’s perspective, players will also have the choice to move their heads around to look at the environment in the cutscene. While this doesn’t add too much to the core gameplay of the upcoming title, the feature was described as being added to help provide players with a feeling that they have a key role to play in the story. Going further, there will also be cockpit cameras for some cutscenes that take place mid-flight.

“By deliberately looking away, you may discover new things, such as what other characters are doing in the background while the conversation is happening,” Kono said.

Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve was unveiled with a trailer that provided a rundown of the general premise, with the player taking on the role of the eponymous “Wings of Theve” in the year 2029. The protagonist is one of the pilots on the refugee ship Endurance, which is also populated by refugees of the Federation of Central Usea after the place was recently attacked. The title is being developed by Project Aces, and while a solid release date for the game hasn’t yet been announced, it does have a 2026 window, when it will come to PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.

For more details about the Ace Combat series, check out our review of the previous title—Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown.