Introduction to the Ace combat series to new fans who were born too late to remember:
Ace Combat, a very old IP dating back to the days of PlayStation 1 by Namco, has traditionally been on the PlayStation platform. However, there is something about the devil's number 6 with Namco's recent releases that has been everything 'Xbox'. Ridge Race 6 from before and now Ace Combat 6. Millions of Sony fanboys' hearts sank when it was annouced as Xbox exclusive.
Namco has traditionally been tightly knitted with Sony in the Japanese market with the exclusiveness of the Tekken series thus far, the formation of Cellius, the PS3/Gundam Musou Bundle Package, Kaz Hirai's famous E3 quote "It's riiiiiidge racer!", and of course Ken Kutaragi's son is a manager at Namco Bandai. With all these connection is hard for anybody not to see a future Ace Combat could be possible for the Sony platform. However, only time will truely tell.
Namco was founded in 1955 and merged with Bandai in 2005. Between that long period, they have produced some of the most memorable franchises in gaming.
Namco Bandai has dominated the air combat genre with "Ace Combat" for years without much competition, but Ubisoft is taking the series head on with the Tom Clancy-branded "HAWX" in March. A Ubisoft developer told MTV Multiplayer one of the big differences between the two games is the element of realism brought to "HAWX."
IGN reports, "Leading video games developer and publisher Namco Bandai Games America Inc. announced today that the Ace Combat series has surpassed 10 million units sold worldwide, and that Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War for the PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system has surpassed one million units sold in North America. Fueled by consistently entertaining and accessible gameplay as well as cutting-edge graphics, the series has remained a critical and commercial smash hit since its introduction in 1995."
