Bandai Namco and Project Aces screwed the pooch

So, the PC version of Ace Combat 7 is out and it only supports two flight sticks:

They've gone out of their way to exclude support for any HOTAS other than the two branded sticks they released with the console version of the game. Even the T. Flight Hotas X, which is essentially the exact same stick just with a different color scheme, is unsupported.

This is a bizarrely stupid move that reeks of desperation to me. Between the stupid pre-order exclusive (psst, I bet they'll be available later) copies of AC5 and 6 and this, it just seems that Bamco is trying to rip every single penny out of this release no matter how questionable the means. Of course as a result the game is sitting at Mixed reviews on Steam and a decent amount of people are refunding their pre-orders.

Edit: Oh yeah, and obviously Bamco and Project Aces were radio silent about this matter prior to release. Hell, last year Nvidia released an article advertising the great breadth of customization, button remapping and flight stick support.

As contrast: Project Wingman (also using UE4), a Kickstarter project being made essentially by one guy has full HOTAS support and button remapping, so we know this isn't a technical issue but a purposeful middle finger.

Not saying anyone should have suspected this, but I feel like this doesn't seem particularly surprising coming from Namco Bandai. If I remember correctly, i think Ace Combat 6 had similar issues of only supporting 1 or 2 flight sticks, though that was a 360 game so it could be more to do with the console, and I may just be remembering wrong anyway.

It's a real shame that this has overshadowed having a real Ace Combat game on PC for the first time too, the options should be available(and I bet will be one way or the other)...but this is also an arcade game and very much not a simulator so I wouldn't put it as disastrous as something like the old RE4 port that didn't support mouse.

Just want to point out that this is a console franchise which has been controlled with a gamepad for 24 years.
It's never been a flight sim, it's never been on PC until now, and now that Ace Combat has finally arrived on the platform flight sim enthusiasts have somehow managed to drum up enough support to review bomb the game...
I'm very saddened by this, it's a great PC port well optimized with good options, it doesn't deserve this, get over it and use the controller it was designed for.

@cikame:

I own and have played the game on PS4, I wanted to play the game on PC because using a HOTAS is more fun.

The game is designed to support HOTAS, they support it on console and they support the two specific sticks on PC. They could've easily had full HOTAS support on PC, but decided to push the sales of the products they have brand deals for.

Wanting to use HOTAS doesn't mean someone is confusing the game with a flight sim. I've played these games before, I know exactly what they are.
"Ace Combat isn't a flight sim" is not even close to a valid argument for defending purposefully butchered HOTAS support.

This could've been avoided with proper messaging pre-release. Now you have a situation where some people bought a HOTAS specifically for this game, falsely expecting a triple-A game to have a full support for a basic functionality.

Alex Trebek: BUZZZZZZZZZZ...I;m sorry the answer we were looking for was, "What is...the games have been compatible with sticks since Ace Combat 2."

As we can see from Ace Combat 2 Manual there was built in support for three different types of control. The standard controller of course, the NEOCON, and Sony's own HOTAS stick.

The HOTAS was called the Analog Stick or Analog Joystick (SCPH-1110). This stick that was supported by 42 games on PSX.

Other copanatable sticks for Ace Combat 2 & 3 were the Mad Catz PlayStation 1 PS1 Arcade Flight, Biogrip For Sony Playstation PSX PS1 Flight Stick/Yoke Joystick, and PS Dominator Logic3.

When PS2 came out Sony Ace Combat 4 seemingly just supported DualShock 2, but in reality this was the era of the accessory controller mapping the DualShock functions on the stick itself. So in reality you could use a wide variety of PS2-compatible fight sticks. When Ace Combat 5 arrived it came with compatibility for the various sticks, but you could buy the bundle to get a Ace Combat Flight 2 sticks, which was a rebadged Saitek X45 controller. From then on, Namco has sticks made for the bundles even on XBox 360 and PS3.

Seems shitty but surely there's a way to jimmy the support for the stick you have somehow... or someone will probably mod it in pretty quick if they are that similar. I know you shouldn't have to but where there's a will and all that.

EDIT: Did a bit of cursory digging and couldn't see any elegant solutions but there does seem to be 3rd party software that emulates keyboard/controller input from flight stick inputs. Figure with a bit of tinkering it could work as a temporary solution? My bad, wrong person tagged :/

Yup! There's a multitude of different solutions, most popular being x360ce, people have had a decent level of success with it.

Right now I'm undecided on what I want to do, I don't really feel comfortable about paying full price for the game if I have to DIY a workaround for a feature I think should've been there to begin with.

I guess I'll cool off for a couple of weeks and wait to see if they patch in official support and then make the call on requesting a refund or not.

@briarpack: Can't say I blame you, seems like a crappy move on their part made only for the sake of selling their flight sticks. The amount of negative reviews and refunds might force them to reassess their position with any luck.