Update 01/03: The Play at Home initiative is now live and 2016’s Ratchet & Clank is now free to download and keep from the PlayStation Store, playable on both PS4 and PS5. The offer is live until 31st March with more giveaways and promotions planned for the next three months.
Here’s the download link for Ratchet & Clank on the PlayStation Store:
The original article follows.
Sony have announced the return of their Play At Home initiative, giving away Ratchet & Clank on PlayStation 4 for free through the month of March as a way of reaching out and offering support to PlayStation customers as we continue to endure the Covid-19 pandemic. Further games and other will then continue to be rolled out through to June.
Starting from 1st March, Ratchet & Clank PS4Â will be free download through PlayStation Store. The offer ends at 4AM BST on 1st April. Once you redeem the game, it’s yours to keep, with no strings attached.
Later in the month, Sony’s anime subsidiary Funimation will offer extended access to new subscribers to Funimation or Wakanim (the European division), starting on 25th March. More details on this will follow, but it will be available to those who sign up to Funimation in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand, or Wakanim in most of Western and Northern Europe) starting on March 25 for a limited time.
2016’s Ratchet & Clank is the first game given away in the new Play At Home initiative.
Jim Ryan announced this alongside the next-generation of PlayStation VR, delays to Gran Turismo 7 and a PC port of Days Gone (and other PS exclusives), making it a rather busy day for all at PlayStation HQ.
Writing on the PlayStation Blog, he said, “In these historic times, the team at PlayStation wanted to thank the community by giving something back. These days, we could all use something to look forward to and another reason to stay safely socially distanced, so we are happy to be able to offer a free selection of great games and some entertainment offers.[…]
“This year, we wanted to go further [with Play At Home]. So we’ve designed a series of free games and entertainment offers for our PlayStation community to make the next few months a little more fun and enjoyable.”
Every Ratchet & Clank game ranked from worst to best
Ratchet & Clank was a reimagining of the series first game, launching alongside an animated movie in 2016. In our Ratchet & Clank review, Tuffcub wrote:
I can’t remember the last time I enjoyed a game as much as Ratchet & Clank. From shootouts and platfoming to the practically perfect script. Younger kids are going to love the bright visuals and characterisations, while us big kids will be chuckling at Qwark’s jokes and the sly grin Ratchet gives to the camera when he gets his paws on a new weapon.
Of course, there’s a good reason why this game is being given away, with the awesome looking Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart coming exclusively to PlayStation 5 this June.
Source: PS Blog
hornet1990
Hmm. Call me cynical… obviously R&C is to build hype for the new title but covid has been with us for a year now give or take so why now to suddenly give something back?
Still, free games though so shouldn’t complain!
jeanhenry
There’s a clue in the title ‘returning’
This will be the second and hopefully last year of the promotion.
hornet1990
Fair enough. TBH I have zero recollection of the previous giveaway which is unusual, ordinarily if something is being given away I’m all over it!
So what’s the betting that the other two titles will be TLoU Remastered and HZD? Or maybe Spiderman…
MrYd
Probably something else that’s in the PS+ Collection you get with a PS5. So not HZD or Spiderman, but TLoU Remastered could happen. That was on PS+ already.
I’m not about to go through the 20 PS+ Collection games to see which have been on normal PS+. I think most of them have. Maybe half a dozen that haven’t.
jeanhenry
Think it was the Uncharted collection last time. Again it’s been on plus but still not bad if never had it.
TrannosaurusBex
Had this is on my wishlist, so this was good news.. then I saw people saying it had previously been on PS Plus, so went to check and low and behold, I’ve already got it ? that’s my evening sorted!
Be interesting to see if those of us who already picked this up on PS Plus are able to claim the game as part of the Play at Home promotion so that it’s not tied to our subscription.
Andrewww
I think it is lame to give a game all subscribers already got with Plus anyway and make a fuss of it. It basically should be communicated correctly as ‘for non-subscribers, we give… blabla’. Everything else is half lying.