Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown

Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown
Information
VR/AR	Virtual Reality
Developer	Bandai Namco Studios (Project Aces)
Publisher	Bandai Namco Entertainment
Platform	PlayStation 4
Device	PlayStation VR
Type	Game
Genre	Simulation, Action, Shooter
Input Device	DualShock 4
Game Mode	Single-player
Release Date	18 January 2019 (PlayStation 4)
Price	US$59.99 (Standard Edition)
App Store	PlayStation Store
Website	https://en.bandainamcoent.eu/ace-combat/ace-combat-7-skies-unknown

See also: VR Apps and VR Games

Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown (styled ACE COMBAT 7: SKIES UNKNOWN) is a combat flight game developed by Bandai Namco Studios and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment. It was released for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on 18 January 2019, for PC through Steam on 1 February 2019 (the Steam store page lists 31 January 2019), and for the Nintendo Switch on 11 July 2024. The main campaign is a flat-screen game on every platform. The PlayStation 4 version adds separate content built only for the PlayStation VR headset: a short set of VR missions played from the cockpit, a hangar viewer and an air show mode.

The game was announced at PlayStation Experience 2015 as a PlayStation 4 and PlayStation VR title. Its VR mode, which Road to VR described as the first VR support in the series, became the part of the package that several reviewers singled out. UploadVR called the VR support "utterly superb" but criticized how little of it there was: three missions that an experienced player can finish in 10 minutes or less each. Bandai Namco reported in January 2026 that the game had passed 7 million units sold worldwide across all platforms.

Reviewed 13 October 2026. Release dates, developer and publisher, PlayStation Store VR mode listing and price, announcement and development history, developer quotes, VR mission count and content, Metacritic scores, review quotes and scores, sales figures, against every cited source. About review dates.

Overview of the base game

Ace Combat 7 is an arcade-style air combat game. The player flies modern and futuristic fighter jets in a story campaign, and the game also has online multiplayer. On PlayStation 4, online play supports up to eight players with a PlayStation Plus subscription. According to Bandai Namco, the game was made by its in-house Project Aces team in Tokyo with Unreal Engine 4 and trueSKY technology. None of the main campaign can be played in VR; Bandai Namco's series producer Kazutoki Kono told UploadVR in 2017 that the flat campaign was the mainline experience and the VR missions were "a tailor-made experimental mode".

VR content

The PlayStation Store listing describes three modes made only for PlayStation VR: standalone combat missions, a hangar tour, and aerial displays. The listing's notice states that PlayStation VR and the PlayStation Camera are required for these features, although its feature list marks the camera as optional.

VR missions

The VR missions form their own single-player campaign, separate from the main story. In a PlayStation Blog post before launch, Bandai Namco Entertainment America said the campaign is set in 2014, five years before the events of the main game, with the player flying as Mobius 1 against an insurgency by Free Erusea. Each mission starts with a view of the aircraft before the maintenance crew sends the player to take off. Inside the cockpit, gauges and switches move in real time, the pilot's hands and legs follow the stick and pedals, and the cockpit displays show ammunition, radar, flares and damage to the aircraft.

The view is locked to the first-person cockpit. Kono told UploadVR that the most important element was "to never interrupt the illusion that the player is the pilot". He said focus groups had tried the game with the headset early in development, and that fixed elements such as the cockpit and the HUD help players orient themselves and reduce motion sickness. The player can look around the full sky to track enemies. In September 2018, DualShockers reported from Bandai Namco's information that VR cockpits were made specifically for the mode, that their multi-function displays worked and showed damage, and that targets could be locked by looking at them through the headset. The same report listed the F/A-18 Hornet, F-22 Raptor and Su-30 Flanker among four aircraft available in VR, with the fourth not yet revealed. According to UploadVR's review, replaying the missions unlocks a new plane with its own cockpit, and the mode also includes free flight. The many switches and buttons in the cockpit cannot be operated directly. UploadVR noted that DualShock 4 support does not allow it and wrote that PlayStation Move support for the flight stick and cockpit buttons would have been welcome.

Hangar and air show

DualShockers described the VR hangar as a way to view the chosen aircraft from every angle. In the VR Air Show, the player stands on the deck of an aircraft carrier while jets fly maneuvers overhead to music from earlier Ace Combat games, and the player picks which maneuvers are flown.

Development

VR support was part of the game from its December 2015 reveal, when the press release promised PlayStation 4 players "exclusive features" built for PlayStation VR. When Bandai Namco announced the Xbox One and PC versions and the "Skies Unknown" subtitle on 26 January 2017, it said that PlayStation 4 players would be able to play portions of the game with exclusive PlayStation VR features. UploadVR reported the same month that no PC VR support was planned.

In a behind-the-scenes video released in January 2019, VR producer Jun Tamaoki said that an early VR version had been scrapped because it felt "tacked on"; the team then built a separate VR campaign for the headset instead. At E3 2017, Bandai Namco brand manager David Bonacci told Road to VR that the separate mode would offer "several hours of VR gameplay" with "100 percent the same mobility" as the flat campaign. At Gamescom 2018 a Bandai Namco representative said the VR mode would have five missions lasting around three hours, according to UploadVR. The released game has three VR missions.

Hands-on reports before launch described the demo's visuals and comfort. Scott Hayden of Road to VR played the E3 2017 demo, a carrier launch followed by a dogfight against fighters and smaller drones, and found it "exceedingly comfortable" with no simulator sickness; he also noted that distant enemies appeared as "an eternal jumble of tiny pixels", which he attributed to the headset's limited resolution and the distance to the targets. David Jagneaux of UploadVR wrote in January 2017 that the VR visuals were a step down from the flat version, but that the immersion "more than makes up for the loss of visual fidelity".

Release

In January 2017 UploadVR reported that the game was due that year; by mid-2017 delays had moved it to 2018, and the release date was later set for 18 January 2019. At launch the VR content was exclusive to the PlayStation 4 version.

Platform	Release date	Notes
PlayStation 4	18 January 2019	Includes the separate PlayStation VR modes
Xbox One	18 January 2019	No VR mode
PC (Steam)	1 February 2019 (Bandai Namco Europe; the Steam page lists 31 January 2019)	No VR mode
Nintendo Switch	11 July 2024	Deluxe Edition with six downloadable content packs and a music player mode

The PlayStation 4 Standard Edition launched at US$59.99, the price it still lists on the PlayStation Store, where the listing also gives notes for playing the game on PlayStation 5. Bandai Namco announced that the game had passed 6 million units sold on 17 January 2025 and 7 million on 16 January 2026; these figures cover all platforms and are not broken down for VR.

Reception

On Metacritic, the PlayStation 4 version has a Metascore of 80 from 71 critic reviews, the Xbox One version 79 from 17 reviews and the PC version 78. These scores cover the whole game; only the PlayStation 4 version has VR content.

Publication	Platform	Score	Notes
Metacritic (aggregate)	PlayStation 4	80/100	71 critic reviews
Metacritic (aggregate)	Xbox One	79/100	17 critic reviews
Metacritic (aggregate)	PC	78/100
Press Start	PlayStation 4	9/10	Called the PlayStation VR mode "a must-play"
Shacknews	PlayStation 4	7/10	Called the VR component "the highlight of the experience"
UploadVR	PlayStation 4 (VR mode)	No score	Reviewed the VR content only

Reviews of the VR content praised the cockpit and the sense of flying, and criticized its length. Jamie Feltham of UploadVR wrote that the cockpits were detailed "down to every switch and button" and that combat became "an effortless thrill" once the Expert control scheme was mastered, but called the mode "criminally short on VR content". He reported that it took him about two hours on normal difficulty, with multiple deaths, found the timed objectives of the middle mission "far too strict", and warned that the Expert controls "will undoubtedly cause nausea" for some players.

Kevin Tucker of Shacknews wrote that the VR mode "feels much more exciting than the main game" because it is "so much more intuitive", and wished the whole game had been designed for VR. He also warned of a "tremendous potential for nausea". Josh Lack of Press Start noted that ground models and foliage "drop quite a lot" in VR, but wrote that "the separate mission mode has clearly been crafted with VR in mind" and that full 360-degree viewing "takes the action to another level". Excerpts collected by Metacritic include IGN Japan describing "a VR mode so great that it should go down in history", while TheSixthAxis wrote that "the VR sadly turned my stomach".