Bandai Namco just yanked the rug out from under PC pre-order buyers who specifically wanted Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War as a standalone port. What started as a promised separate executable on Steam got stealth-edited into DLC that demands the full 135GB Ace Combat 8 install just to boot a 3.2GB 2006 PS2 port. Consoles get the clean standalone app. PC gets the middle finger and a mandatory bloat download.

Players who pre-ordered for Steam Deck access are especially livid. One Reddit user summed it up: they bought specifically to play Zero on Deck because the original listing promised a standalone app, only for the store page to flip the script. No separate library entry, no individual achievements, no cloud saves, and the main game must sit on your drive regardless. SteamDB confirms the DLC depot is tiny, but the dependency is absolute.

The Ace Combat subreddit and Steam reviews are burning with the same complaints, drowning out actual discussion of the new game. Bandai Namco has not commented yet. This isn't a minor backend change; it's a deliberate bait-and-switch that punishes the exact fans they tried to lure with nostalgia bait. Eurogamer called it out. The community is done pretending it doesn't matter.