The Game Awards 2020 have come and gone, and while Sony had a pretty major presence at the show with The Last of Us taking 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's Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart would 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, with Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart slated to release in the first half of 2021, when will Sony announce its release date?
Insomniac Games initially announced Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart at 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 demonstrated an extended version of the same sequence from the game, this time revealing that Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart would launch within the PS5's "launch window."
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 to provide a deeper look into titles releasing in early 2021, which much of Sony's marketing has pinned Rift 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 Clank was a complete no-show.
While Sony did not appear to announce the release date of Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart, the publisher was present to announce one other major PlayStation 5 exclusive's release date, that being the March 19th 2021 release date of Housemarque's AAA debut, Returnal. While the games share very little in common, this release window for Returnal does provide us with some insight for when to expect Rift Apart, especially as it's coming 4 months after the launch of the PlayStation 5 itself.
Given Sony's move to announce Returnal's release date before Rift Apart's, and how close we are to the end of 2020, we can assume that Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart will not release before Returnal. This only makes sense given that Sony has not announced any other solid release dates for PlayStation 5 exclusives. While nobody could have expected that Returnal would arrive before Rift Apart, it seems unlikely that the publisher would announce another game releasing before Returnal given that Returnal itself 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 that Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart is slated for the first half of 2021, along with titles such as Deathloop, Gran Turismo 7, and the previously discussed Returnal. With this in mind, it's easy to assume that the PlayStation 5's "launch window" runs up to May or June of 2021, leaving Ratchet and Clank to 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 will Ratchet 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 January seem 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 aforementioned Gran Turismo 7, Shin Megami Tensei 3: Nocturne HD Remaster, Oddworld: Soulstorm, and Resident 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 while Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart may 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 as Ratchet and Clank in April, the month after Returnal, and the month before Deathloop.
Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart will launch in early 2021, exclusively on PlayStation 5.