Ace Combat 8 Standard vs Deluxe Edition
Standard is $69.99 and Deluxe is $89.99 on Steam, PS5 and Xbox alike. Both come with the pre-order bonus: Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War and the F-14A. The $20.00 difference buys a season of the Premium Ace Pass Plus and a cosmetic set. Pre-ordered Deluxe also came with a 3-day head start before launch; bought after launch, it does not. The release date page has the times.
| What you get | Standard | Deluxe |
|---|---|---|
| Price (US) | $69.99 | $89.99 |
| The game | Yes | Yes |
| Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War (pre-order bonus) | Yes | Yes |
| F-14A (pre-order bonus) | Yes | Yes |
| 3-day head start before launch | No | Pre-orders only (digital in some countries) |
| Premium Ace Pass Plus voucher (one season) | No | Yes |
| F-4E Mobius Squadron 25th Anniversary skin | No | Yes |
| F/A-18C Team Zvezda skin | No | Yes |
| Tasha lobby outfit (online only) | No | Yes |
| Scarlet missile smoke (online only) | No | Yes |
Is Deluxe worth it?
Mostly if you will play online. Everything Deluxe adds beyond the head start lives in online mode or after the campaign: the voucher unlocks one season of the Premium Ace Pass Plus, whose first season includes the ADFX-02 Morgan at level 1, and the two jet skins only unlock in the campaign once every mission is cleared. The outfit belongs to Tasha, Joker 3 in the cast of characters. The voucher is not tied to a season, so you can save it. The Ace Pass page explains the tiers, and the online mode page what you would be buying into.
Collector sets: Joker Flight Pack
The Joker Flight Pack adds a 208-page art book, ACES at WAR: A HISTORY 2029, and a two-record vinyl soundtrack to everything in Deluxe. The Premium Joker Flight Pack adds a patch and an XXL carrier mouse pad on top. Both are sold only through Bandai Namco's own store and only as the PC Steam version, with a Steam code in the box.
Physical Deluxe and the early start
In some countries the head start applied only to digital Deluxe copies, and the European site mentioned discs too. Many disc owners report they could not play early.