Bandai Namco has announced a delay for Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown.

The game will forgo its planned release sometime later this year for sometime next year, unfortunately. The reasoning behind the delay is to further optimize and perfect the coming aerial combat game.

Here’s a message from the game’s director:

Dear Ace Combatants,

I wanted to take this opportunity to speak directly to you, our loyal Ace Combat fans, and give you a first-hand update on the launch timing for Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown. The Project ACES team and I have been working hard on Ace Combat 7 and we’re determined to achieve the vision we have set for the game. In order to reach that vision, we have decided to move the launch of ACE COMBAT 7 to 2018.

We would have loved to launch Ace Combat 7 at the end of 2017 as we originally intended, but doing so would compromise our goal for the game. We take our art very seriously and that means we have instead chosen to devote additional time and effort to perfect and optimize this newest chapter of the Ace Combat saga.

The combination of the Unreal 4 Engine and the power of current generation consoles and PC hardware have literally opened the “skies of opportunity” to us to develop the best Ace Combat experience to-date. At no other time in Ace Combat’s 20+ year history has gaming technology allowed us to deliver the minute details of flight combat – such as cloud cover and air currents – or give players a new way to experience dogfights and attack sorties through hardware such as the new PlayStation VR.

We’ll have a lot more information and details to share with you in the coming months, starting at E3 2017 where we plan to reveal a brand-new demo showcasing one of the non-VR missions in Ace Combat 7 for the first time ever!

On behalf of the entire Project ACES team, I want to thank you all for your patience and for your continued support.

Sincerely,
Kazutoki Kono – Ace Combat Franchise Director

Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown will eventually launch for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, with support for PlayStation VR on PS4.