Attention PlayStation players: 2016's Ratchet & Clank will be free to download all month long in March, as Sony revives its Play At Home initiative and is starting off with the Insomniac reboot. Sony launched the original Play At Home last April, as the first wave of coronavirus lockdowns began sweeping the world, and it offered both Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection and Journey to players for free.
At the moment, Sony is facing legal troubles due to the growing issue of controller drift affecting the PS5's DualSense controller. While this issue may be resolved as time goes on, it still is not a good look for the company, especially when the upcoming PS5-exclusive Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart feels like it was made for the DualSense. With its public reputation not exactly at its best, Sony has come back with some positive news for its fans still facing down the barrel of a deadly pandemic.
A PlayStation blog post from SIE CEO Jim Ryan announced that the Play at Home initiative would be returning for the month of March, and this time, Ratchet & Clank will be the star of the show. Ryan says PlayStation wants to simultaneously thank its community by giving back while also incentivizing people to stay inside and comply with social distancing protocols. To accomplish this, "PlayStation and Insomniac Games will make Ratchet & Clank PS4 available for free download" from March 1 through March 31, giving players all month to redeem the free offer. The game will be players' to keep as if they purchased it, free from any PS Plus related stipulations.
2016's Ratchet & Clank is a well-made fan favorite, and with its sequel is scheduled to come out three months after this promotion, it makes sense that Sony would opt to make it readily available for everyone. On top of Ratchet & Clank, Funimation's streaming service will be offering "extended access for new subscribers to Funimation." Funimation's catalogue has some impressive names, and 104 days (with the offer ending on June 7, giving subscribers just over two months) is plenty of time to watch through at least some of them.
Last April's Play At Home initiative was a welcome spot of positivity in an otherwise negative time, and it looks like this year's will be more of the same. And as mentioned earlier, this serves as a chance at some much needed positive PR for Sony; moving the conversation away from its controller drift case, and towards a beloved first-party PlayStation title ahead of the release of its sequel. The timing on Ratchet & Clank being made free is a very smart play on PlayStation's part, one that its targets hopefully take advantage of.
Ratchet & Clank is available on PS4.
Source: PlayStation