{"id":187241,"date":"2025-12-12T03:56:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T03:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/187241\/"},"modified":"2025-12-12T03:56:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T03:56:11","slug":"bandai-namco-entertainment-ceo-on-elden-ring-movie-ace-combat-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/187241\/","title":{"rendered":"Bandai Namco Entertainment CEO on Elden Ring Movie, Ace Combat 8"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tBandai Namco Entertainment<\/a> announced the next installment in its beloved flight-shooter franchise \u201cAce Combat\u201d Thursday to much fanfare during the 2025 Game Awards.<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tTitled \u201cAce Combat 8<\/a>: Wings of Theve,\u201d the game takes place after the events of \u201cAce Combat 7\u201d and before \u201cAce Combat 3.\u201d The title will debut in 2026 across PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S and for PC via Steam.<\/p>\n

\n\tBefore the show, Bandai Namco Entertainment CEO Nao Udagawa gave Variety a sneak peek at the new game, \u201cAce Combat 8: Wings of Theve,\u201d and some updates on A24\u2019s upcoming \u201cElden Ring<\/a>\u201d movie (Disney vet Peter Rice has joined the project) and her overall strategy since taking the helm at the Bandai video game studio.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe graphics are something that we really, really leaned into heavy for \u2018Ace Combat 8\u2019 and visual expression of the sky itself,\u201d Udagawa said. \u201cI think of how the clouds are shown and rendered \u2014 I would get different development updates and the developer would show me what the progress is, and every time, wow the sky and the clouds, it\u2019s so amazing, and how it ties into the weather change as well. So I think that\u2019s something the fans are going to really And it is a franchise IP, so certainly the gameplay, I think the fans can know what to expect, so keeping everything that worked really well, but we\u2019re really adding value in the story and the narrative and the sort of cinematic presentation of how it\u2019s delivered. It\u2019s gonna feel like this epic movie that you\u2019ll want to see on a big screen.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tBandai Namco Entertainment<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBandai Namco Entertainment<\/p>\n

\n\tPer Bandai Namco\u2019s description for \u201cAce Combat 8,\u201d \u201cYou\u2019re a fighter pilot, adrift at sea in a rescue boat until the outdated aircraft carrier, Endurance, pulls you aboard. Your homeland\u2019s navy is shattered. The aging vessel, its decks crowded with refugees, has already retreated far from the front lines. It\u2019s July 2029. The Federation of Central Usea (FCU) has fallen under a lightning invasion by the Republic of Sotoa. Most of the nation is occupied, the military is scattered, and the Endurance is just one fragment of what remains. On this ship, you\u2019re given a single name: \u201cWings of Theve.\u201d A legendary ace, a symbol of hope, a name tied to Theve, the FCU capital. But that legend was a lie, mere propaganda\u2014a story to keep morale alive. Now, you must carry that name and take to the skies again. With three new comrades at your side, fight to reclaim your lost homeland.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFor development on the new game, Bandai Namco Entertainment launched new studio Bandai Namco Aces, so that the \u201cAce Combat\u201d franchise team could operate as their own business with one targeted IP focus.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\u201cOne thing that I\u2019m looking at right now is really the speed and cycles of development that we have,\u201d Udagawa (who has retained her Chief Pac-Man Officer title since being promoted to the company\u2019s overall CEO in 2021) said about her strategy for Bandai Namco\u2019s game studios. \u201cI think it\u2019s great that we\u2019re developing internally and having these discussions to improve the quality of the experience, but at the end of the day, until something reaches the market, the fans aren\u2019t going to be able to get their hands on it. So translating all of these discussions and healthy development into output quicker is something that I\u2019m looking at while maintaining the quality.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBack in the spring, Bandai Namco Entertainment revealed it is working on a film adaptation of its \u201cElden Ring\u201d game franchise with A24 and director Alex Garland. Little has been said about the project since, but Udagawa can now share the Hollywood vet Peter Rice has joined the project.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cDevelopment right now is steady in terms of the project at the moment and catch, yeah, so we have A24 helming up the project with Alex Garland and Peter Rice \u2014 a lot of very well-known names and heavy hitters in the film industry,\u201d Udagawa said. \u201cSo we\u2019re very excited right now about how it\u2019s going to shape up. But I think that\u2019s kind of where the development and pre-production is.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAs for what aspect of the \u201cElden Ring\u201d franchise the movie will focus on, Udagawa can only reveal that the focus for her is on pleasing fans.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOur first priority is really the \u2018Elden Ring\u2019 fans, so the fans who have supported the franchise for so long, making it sure that they feel like it\u2019s a great movie and a great experience,\u201d Udagawa said. \u201cAnd for those who have perhaps not been exposed to the game yet and have seen the film, for them, maybe [thinking,] I\u2019ll try the game to see the world and the perspective from multiple angles and experience it that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWatch the teaser for \u201cAce Combat 8: Wings of Theve\u201d in the video below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bandai Namco Entertainment announced the next installment in its beloved flight-shooter franchise \u201cAce Combat\u201d Thursday to much fanfare…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":187242,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[101198,101199,101200,61,60,80],"class_list":{"0":"post-187241","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-ace-combat-8","9":"tag-bandai-namco-entertainment","10":"tag-elden-ring","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187241\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}