Board Thread:Questions and Answers/@comment-7146531-20140131090141/@comment-1824272-20141206032548

Ace Combat is not inaccessible to anyone. The franchise is still new to some people. Infinity is getting people interested in the series like never before due to its free-to-play model. The PS1 games and PS2 games are easy to find on eBay and a PS1/PS2 go for really cheap now. Anyone who has a 360 can check out 6 and Assault Horizon. Anyone with a PC can check out Assault Horizon and use emulators for the PS1, PS2, and PSP games. And anyone who has a PSP can check out those games as well.

Ace Combat has endured outside of the arcades for 20 years - 2015 is the 20th anniversary of the PS1 release of Air Combat. The fact that the series has been going on for 20 years, and the fact that Infinity still has a very active multiplayer scene after 6 months, is mind-blowing. 6 and Assault Horizon were dead by 6 months.

The Xbox 360 release of 6 was a failure, because Japan doesn't care about the 360. In fact, 360 sales skyrocketed the week of 6's release, and never reached that peak again. In Japan, you either play video games on your PlayStation 3, on your mobile phone, or not at all. That's how the market is there. The PS3 and mobile devices are the only popular video game consoles. The PC, Xbox 360, Xbox One (especially), and partly the PS4, are all jokes.

According to Katsuhiro Harada, producer of the TEKKEN games, Project Aces and Bandai Namco DO pay attention to the fans who do not speak Japanese. Why wouldn't they? Infinity was a worldwide launch and Kazutoki Kono has been repeatedly talking about making this series more popular in Europe because it's always faltered in that region.