Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart won’t require an SSD on PC

Insomniac Games has revealed the PC specs for Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, and notably the game won’t require an SSD.

Although even the minimum specs recommend an SSD, the game will still be playable without one, despite previous suggestions from Insomniac that the game wouldn’t be able to run on systems without one.

In a video posted on the PlayStation YouTube channel prior to Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart’s PS5 release in 2021, Insomniac’s creative director Marcus Smith claimed the game’s rift-traveling mechanic was impossible on previous systems.

“Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart is a game that utilizes dimensions and dimensional rifts, and that would not have been possible without the Solid State Drive of the PlayStation 5,” Smith stated.

“The SSD is screamingly fast. It allows us to build worlds and project players from one place to another in near instantaneous speeds. It is an unbelievable game changer in terms of we can now do gameplay where you’re in one world, and the next moment you’re in another.

“We’re loading up levels that happen so quickly and in the action that you don’t even imagine that this is something that we couldn’t do before because it feels so natural.”

This claim was later dialled back somewhat after the game launched, when game director Mike Daly told Axios: “You could make a game like [the new] ‘Ratchet & Clank’ on the PS4, but just visually speaking, you would have to dial back a ton in order to get it to run.”

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart will release on for PC on July 26, 2023. The game will be available on Steam and Epic Games Store. Players who pre-purchase it will get access to two in-game items early in their playthrough: the Pixelizer Weapon and Carbonox Armor set.

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart PC Specs

Originally released for PS5 in June 2021, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart was billed as an “interdimensional adventure” that uses the console’s SSD to rapidly transport players between different locations.

VGC’s Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart review called the game “a sumptuous showcase of what the PS5 can do.”