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ACE COMBAT 8 "Please close ACE-BASE before launching"

ACE COMBAT 8: Wings of Theve server status →

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IsThisGameDown

Last checked

October 10, 2026

Steam Discussions: "Please close ACE-BASE before launching" ↗

After you press Play in Steam, the Easy Anti-Cheat screen says "Please close ACE-BASE before launching" and the game won't start.

Also appears as: Please close ACE-BASE before launching, Please Close ACE-BASE before Starting the Game, Please close ACE-BASE before starting the game, ACE-BASE, ace base, ace combat 8 won't launch easy anti-cheat, ace combat 8 close ace-base

Players report this dialog on the Easy Anti-Cheat start screen, before the game opens, with nothing visible in Task Manager. Nobody in the threads explains what ACE-BASE is. One reply guesses that another game's anti-cheat conflicts with Easy Anti-Cheat.

In three Steam threads, restarting the PC is the fix players name most. Two players in one thread say it worked, though another says they have to restart every time it appears. One player posted a command to stop the ACE-BASE service; no one has reported back that it worked.

Fix it, step by step

  1. Restart your PC, then launch the game

    In one Steam thread a player got the dialog right after installing, and another replied that restarting the PC worked, since Easy Anti-Cheat can collide with other processes. The original poster then confirmed it worked for them. In another thread a reply calls rebooting the worst-case fix, but that thread's original poster says they have to restart every time the dialog appears.

  2. Stop the ACE-BASE service from an administrator Command Prompt (one report)

    One player posted this as the solution: open Command Prompt as administrator, run sc query ace-base, and if it says "RUNNING", run sc stop ace-base, then launch the game. Two threads carry the same post. Nobody has reported back that it worked.

  3. If the command says access is denied, run Command Prompt as administrator (unconfirmed)

    One player got "access is denied" from the command above. A reply said to right-click Command Prompt and choose Run as administrator, or to put the command in a .bat file and run that as administrator. The player thanked them but didn't say whether it worked.

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What people are saying

Notes from players who've hit this one — no time limit, an answer from months ago is still an answer.

  • Nothing reported here yet.
← WP-202001022

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