Ace Combat Infinity

 is the latest entry in the Ace Combat series, announced on July 19, 2013 after a lengthy teaser campaign. Infinity appears to be the fifth Ace Combat game to take place on Earth; it is the first free-to-play game for the series, as well as the first digital-only release.

The game will be free to download and play exclusively for all PlayStation 3 users in the fall of 2013.

Plot
In an alternate 1999, a meteor impacts the Earth, leaving behind numerous craters as well as a huge collection of space debris stuck in the atmosphere. In 2019, 20 years after the event, a conflict breaks out between unknown countries and forces, but a superweapon named Stonehenge and a group only known as the UNF are confirmed as integral to the plot, as well as a Heavy command cruiser identical to the P-1112 Aigaion. Two operations have also been spotted: Operation: Fogbound, which takes placed in an economic region within Russia, and an unknown operation which takes place in Tokyo. Teaser Trailer 00 also showed a flight of ASF-X Shinden IIs bearing the initials of the UNF.

Gameplay
From what can be told so far, the gameplay of Infinity will follow the classic style of gameplay from previous console Ace Combats, notably Ace Combat 04.

Close Range Assault, an integral component of gameplay in Ace Combat: Assault Horizon, was confirmed to not be included in Infinity. Gameplay elements confirmed for Infinity include a visible health bar on multiplayer opponents; non-target opponents colored yellow rather than green (this may be multiplayer-specific); and the traditional radar and full aircraft info (ammo, health, reloading) along the bottom of the screen. Oil and shrapnel splatter on the screen when an enemy close to the player's aircraft is destroyed, similar to Assault Horizon.

Multiplayer
Ace Combat Infinity, a free-to-play game, will have a multiplayer experience alongside the single-player story campaign. Currently, the only details known about multiplayer is that it will feature a co-operative mode where "skilled aces will form two teams and compete to inflict the most damage on a common enemy."

Customization
In a first for the series, Infinity allows players to customize and set up to four different "Sortie Settings," which include the aircraft, special weapons, skills, and emblem that the player will be flying with during that sortie. It is currently unclear as to whether these will apply to singleplayer as well as multiplayer, or if they can be selected while respawning in multiplayer (if respawning is possible).

Similar to Ace Combat X, Joint Assault, and Assault Horizon Legacy, Infinity also has a user interface which allows the player to unlock aircraft and upgrade each one through a technology tree. Players can upgrade their aircraft's armor, missile power, gun damage, engine power, power of certain weapons, and more.

Aircraft
So far, the only confirmed aircraft for Infinity, as seen in Teaser Trailer 00, are the CFA-44 Nosferatu, PAK-FA, Su-35 Flanker-E, and the aforementioned ASF-X Shinden II.

Teaser Trailer 01 adds the MiG-21bis Fishbed, MiG-29A Fulcrum, F-14D Super Tomcat, EF-2000 Typhoon and an unknown type of drone aircraft to the list of confirmed planes for Infinity.

The third teaser trailer (as of yet unnamed by Project Aces) adds the F-16C Fighting Falcon, F-35B Lightning II, Su-32 Strike Flanker and F-22A Raptor into the list of confirmed aircraft.

Teaser campaign
The game was first teased on June 14, 2013, when Kazutoki Kono (who directed Ace Combat: Assault Horizon and worked on numerous other Ace Combat games) tweeted a photo of his Japanese passport and his laptop, which displayed a revised version of the Project Aces logo with what appeared to be several objects approaching the ground from the sky. On June 21, 2013, the full-sized version of the logo was uploaded to the Project Aces Twitter account, and was set as the avatar and background image.

On July 10, a second image was uploaded to the Twitter account, containing part of a message, which read "ky fe||, the". Interestingly, the two L's in "fell" were formatted differently. This post was followed by another one a day later, consisting only of the word "closening" (meaning "to get close"), hinting that an announcement was imminent.

On July 11, a new website was set up by Namco Bandai, titled "PROJECT ACES NewTitle", which was subsequently announced through Twitter. The site contained the full teaser message, which read: "That day our sky fe||, the heavens split to create new skies." In addition to using the new Project Aces logo as its favicon, the code of the site contained the phrase "エースコンバット" (Ace Combat) as a keyword. It was later discovered that Namco Bandai filled a trademark for "Ace Combat Infinity" the same day.

Three times after the website's initial launch, the Project Aces logo background slowly faded into the page from the lower right corner. Finally, the second part of the sentence itself seemed to "split" into two parts, adding further symbolism to the message.

On July 15, however, the website completely changed, only showing a friendly radio transmission, indicated by the blue colored symbols around it: "<< Here comes the third strike! >>" Hours later, it was tweeted on the Project Aces Twitter account. On July 16, it was replaced with another friendly radio transmission reading: "<< All engines on Kottos 2 destroyed! >>" Once again, this message was tweeted a few hours later. On July 17, the image was once again replaced with a friendly radio transmission, this time reading: "<< Ridgeback One. Edge, report. >>" followed by the tweets a few hours later. Two hours after that, Kazutoki Kono wished everyone to "enjoy the official tomorrow."

Two hours before the Project Aces Twitter tweeted the Ridgeback One transmission, Kazutoki Kono stated that if the Project Aces Twitter reached 8,492 followers, he would release an image related to Ace Combat. When the number was met, he tweeted a picture of a soda bottle in front of a computer screen. The screen was displaying what looked to be a squadron emblem, consisting of at least two human bones possibly forming the letter A.

On July 18 at 1:03 PM EDT, Tony Shoupinou (Community Manager at Namco Bandai Games, who had previously shared the "ky fe||, the" image as well) posted "Tomorrow @ 9AM (Central European Time), we will fly again. Yay! I can't wait." on his Facebook wall. At 9:00 PM EDT that same day, the image on the teaser site was replaced, this time not by a friendly radio transmission, but by the universal sign for infinity "∞", in the color red.

On July 19 at 1:03 AM EDT, 12 hours after Tony Shoupinou's Facebook post, Kazutoki Kono took to Twitter once more to inform everyone to keep an eye on their screens at 1600hrs Japan Time (the same time Tony Shoupinou mentioned, which would occur in 1 hour and 57 minutes), and to look at "it" without him since he would be at a meeting. Whatever "it" was referring to was not known.

On July 19 at 3:00 AM EDT, the NewTitle website was updated once again. This time, a teaser trailer (later renamed to Teaser 00) lasting 46 seconds for what was now confirmed to be a PlayStation 3 game, titled Ace Combat Infinity, was added to the site.

On July 26 at 3:00 AM EDT, precisely one week after the teaser trailer was uploaded, a screenshot of the briefing for Operation: Fogbound was uploaded to the Twitter account, with the promise of more information to come next week.

On August 2 at 3:00 AM EDT, precisely another week later, Teaser 01 was uploaded to the site, providing a wealth of information. Simultaneously, Namco Bandai Games Europe uploaded the video with a confirmation that the game was a free-to-play game, along with some details on multiplayer as well as a quote from Olivier Comte, Senior Vice President.

On August 30 at 9:59 AM GMT, Kazutoki Kono tweeted a picture of what appears to be the main menu of Ace Combat Infinity. A couple of hours later, an article was posted on Gaming Age, a gaming news blog, with the third teaser trailer as well as some screenshots of the game.

Theories
One theory generated during the teaser campaign was a new game based around the time of the Estovakian Civil War, due to the first teaser message likely referencing the fall of the Ulysses 1994XF04 Asteroid and the Civil War, and the third teaser message referencing the Kottos airship. Another theory involved a remaster of multiple Ace Combat games at once, due to the various references to different games, including the Ulysses, Kottos, and Edge.

A discovery made on July 16 was that the teaser radio transmissions included a countdown. "Here comes the third strike" involved a 3 and "All engines on Kottos 2 destroyed" involved a 2. This was confirmed the next day, as the message "Ridgeback One. Edge, report" involved a 1, leading many to believe that July 18 would have brought a trailer or announcement of some sort.

Around the time the teaser website, NewTitle, was set up, a second teaser site (titled "NEW TITLE") was created by Namco Bandai for another title. Many theories surrounded this second website's possible link to the Project Aces website due to their simultaneous launches, but this website was eventually announced to be teasing Jump Legend Biography, a Nintendo 3DS game compiling certain Famicom and Super Famicom games.

Trivia

 * Teaser 00 makes two references to Mappy, a 1983 arcade game developed by Namco. The humming in the beginning is of the Mappy theme song, and Mappy himself appears as a silhouette on a pair of wireless headphones.
 * Interestingly enough, this year is the 30th anniversary of Mappy's release.
 *  seems to take place on Earth once again. However, unlike Joint Assault and Assault Horizon before it, set pieces from Strangereal are seemingly "retconned" into the real world. So far, this includes:
 * the fall of the Ulysses, currently unnamed;
 * AWACS Sky Eye, who keeps his name;
 * the Stonehenge Turret Network, which keeps its name;
 * and the entirety of the Estovakian Aerial Fleet, currently unnamed;
 * Infinity appears to reuse certain features of Assault Horizon, such as the Skill Sets and the graphics, such as the oil splatters on the screen and explosion effects.
 * The third teaser includes a remixed version of Comona (song) from Ace Combat 04.

Gallery

 * See the gallery for this article at /Gallery.