The Game Awards 2020 have come and gone, and while Sony had a pretty major presence at the show withThe Last of Ustaking home most of the show’s awards, one major announcement many fans were expecting was noticeably absent from the show. That is, the announcement of when Insomniac’sRatchet and Clank: Rift Apartwould be announced, which many expected to be an absolute lock for one of the show’s many reveals. With the announcement absent from the awards, this begs the question, withRatchet and Clank: Rift Apartslated to release in the first half of 2021, when will Sony announce its release date?
Insomniac Games initially announcedRatchet and Clank: Rift Apartat the PlayStation 5: Future of Gaming event this past June, in which the developer showcased a demo of the game running on actual PlayStation 5 hardware. After the huge success of this showcase, the developer re-appeared at Geoff Keighley’s Gamescom Opening Night Live event in which it demonstratedan extended version of the same sequencefrom the game, this time revealing thatRatchet and Clank: Rift Apartwould launch within the PS5’s “launch window.”
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What is the PS5’s launch window?
Keeping this in mind, it was entirely understandable why many believed that Sony would reintroduced the game at Geoff Keighley’s very own The Game Awards 4 months later, after the PlayStation 5 had launched the month prior. This is especially because many had expected The Game Awards toprovide a deeper look into titles releasing in early 2021, which much of Sony’s marketing has pinnedRift Apart’s release window in. It came as a surprise to many fans then that, despite many games launching early next year received release date announcements at the show,Ratchet and Clankwas a complete no-show.
While Sony did not appear to announce the release date ofRatchet and Clank: Rift Apart, the publisher was present to announce one other major PlayStation 5 exclusive’s release date, that beingthe March 19th 2021 release date of Housemarque’s AAA debut,Returnal. While the games share very little in common, this release window forReturnaldoes provide us with some insight for when to expectRift Apart, especially as it’s coming 4 months after the launch of the PlayStation 5 itself.
Given Sony’s move to announceReturnal’s release date beforeRift Apart’s, and how close we are to the end of 2020, we can assume thatRatchet and Clank: Rift Apartwill not release beforeReturnal. This only makes sense given that Sony has not announced any other solid release dates for PlayStation 5 exclusives. Whilenobody could have expected thatReturnalwould arrive beforeRift Apart, it seems unlikely that the publisher would announce another game releasing beforeReturnalgiven thatReturnalitself is only releasing just over 3 months after its release date announcement.
That leaves us to speculate as to when Sony considers the PlayStation 5 to be out of its “launch window.” While many have speculated that this could be the first year after the console’s launch, going all the way up to November 2021, recent commercials for the PlayStation 5 have indicated thatRatchet and Clank: Rift Apartis slated for the first half of 2021, along with titles such asDeathloop,Gran Turismo 7, and the previously discussedReturnal. With this in mind, it’s easy to assume that the PlayStation 5’s “launch window” runs up to May or June of 2021, leavingRatchet and Clankto release in either April, May, or June 2021.
So When Will We Learn Rift Apart’s Release Date?
So to bring this all back to the original question - when willRatchet and Clank: Rift Apart’s release date be revealed? With no major video game events announced for the first quarter of 2021, and it very unlikely that any will happen in the remainder of 2020,rumors of a possible State of Play in Januaryseem to be our only source of speculation as to when Sony could announce the next major PS5 exclusive’s release. This makes sense given the amount of Q1/Q2 2021 PS4 and PS5 titles without release dates, such as the aforementionedGran Turismo 7,Shin Megami Tensei 3: Nocturne HD Remaster,Oddworld: Soulstorm, andResident Evil 8: Village.
Outside of a possible State of Play, Sony could possibly announce the release date during a random trailer or social media release, however this is quite unlikely as all of the major PlayStation 5 exclusive release date announcements so far have been made during big events such as Sony’s own Future of Gaming event,the PlayStation 5 showcase, and The Game Awards. It would also be hard for Sony to spread the news as broadly through a random social media drop than during its own hyped up event.
With all this in mind, it seems that whileRatchet and Clank: Rift Apartmay not be coming as early in the PlayStation 5’s launch window as many had hoped, the game is still on track to be in PS5 owners' hands during the next couple of months, as made evident by Sony’s marketing campaign for the console.Given the amount of PlayStation 5 exclusives launching in 2021, fans could be treated to a steady rollout of exclusives comparable to Nintendo Switch’s first year on the market, in which a major exclusive dropped on the console almost every month after its launch within 2017. Especially if Sony releases a title such asRatchet and Clankin April, the month afterReturnal, and the month beforeDeathloop.
Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apartwill launch in early 2021, exclusively on PlayStation 5.
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