Play at Home Initiative by Sony Interactive Entertainment returns for a second year and gives everyone 2016s Ratchet & Clank for PlayStation 4, as well as an extensive free trial of Funimation for new subscribers to the anime streaming service.
SIE launched Play at Home in April 2020, in the first weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic and the closures, sheltered orders and quarantines it brought to the United States and Europe. The company then offers Unknown: The Nathan Drake Collection and Travel for everyone as an incentive to stay home and maintain social distance. SIE has also set aside $ 10 million to help its independent development partners and is struggling financially against the effects of the global pandemic.
“The past 12 months have not been easy,” SIE CEO Jim Ryan said in a statement. “And I think we are all hopeful that at the end of this long COVID-19 tunnel we can see some flickers of light, thanks to the tireless work of the medical community and people around the world.”
Ryan said the game and the Funimation offering thank the PlayStation community for doing their part. Ratchet & Clank will be available from March 1 and free in the PlayStation Store until June. More details will appear about the duration of the Funimation trial (called Wakanim in mainland Europe), and the preview offer will start on March 25.
Ratchet & Clank is part of the PlayStation Plus collection of 20 games, and those with a PS Plus subscription already have it. It was also offered in March 2018 as a free game for PlayStation Plus subscribers.