DEMO Ratchet & Clank Future Tools Of Destruction dentro de poco.

Game Informer writes that they've confirmed with Sony that both Heavenly Sword and Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction will be coming to the PlayStation Store in the "near future." With Heavenly Sword a lock for European and North American PLAYSTATION 3 owners, we highly doubt that Insomniac Games' totally awesome action adventure is going to hit the same day. The Store would simply collapse from the distribution of all the awesome sauce.

Just to keep expectations low, we'll just say, that we consider a Ratchet & Clank Future demo is an inevitability and that it won't be released in the past.

Safe to say, now is a good time for independent developer Insomniac Games. Following the playable debut of Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction (PS3) at E3, the internet was awash with glowing impressions--I even named it as my top game of the show in our Best of E3 awards. The company recently released the first set of downloadable content for its PlayStation 3 launch title Resistance: Fall of Man, which is still one of the system's most popular online shooters close to nine months after it debuted. For the third year in a row, the studio was named as one of the top ten small businesses to work for. To find out a bit more about how the studio operates and what it has in the works, I caught up with marketing director Ryan Schneider.

Shack: Now that E3's over, how did the show go?

Ryan Schneider: The response for Insomniac was really great. E3 keeps building off itself, in terms of momentum for the studio. Each time we release a Ratchet & Clank game, the anticipation seems to get a little bit higher for the next one, because people know the quality and care that go into making them. What we did with Resistance, as a launch title, that momentum also carried into Ratchet & Clank Future this year on PS3.

Based on what we read from the media and on the various community boards, gamers are really excited to see what's coming up for [Ratchet & Clank]. They can see the technology leap in terms of graphics, in terms of what we're able to do on-screen, [and] the smoothness at which we're able to do it, in terms of framerate.

The response from other developers was also humbling and gratifying. When you're in a room and other developers come up to you and have nice things to say and pay you all sorts of compliments, it was a great E3. We felt like we came out of the experience being one of the more anticipated PS3 titles and hopefully among the most anticipated games overall going into the holiday season.

Shack: Any chance of the Ratchet & Clank Future E3 demo hitting PlayStation Network soon?

Ryan Schneider: Soon is a broad term. I can confirm that the demo will be downloadable via the PlayStation Store. Only Sony can tell you exactly when that will be though.

Shack: Is it similar to the Heavenly Sword demo situation, where the work is complete and it's just up to Sony to decide when it goes up?

Ryan Schneider: Well, our E3 demo is certainly finished and media have received copies of it for preview coverage. What Sony chooses to do with it, and when, it really is in their hands. The demo is finished--I mean, you saw it [at E3], you played it--and when it comes out, we have a rough idea, but you never know. I think the PlayStation Store is a fluid storefront, and anything can happen.

Shack: Speaking of fluid, the recently released Resistance: Fall of Man map pack underwent a few delays in its journey to the PlayStation Store, originally slated for a May release and eventually arriving at the end of June. How much of that was related to being among the first developers to put premium downloadable content on the service?

Ryan Schneider: Good question. I think you really hit it on the head, it really is about the fact that this stuff is very new. Like you said, we were certainly among the first developers pushing premium map pack content through the PlayStation Store as well as being the first to offer purchasable maps from the game.

There are a lot of challenges that come with that, both anticipated and unanticipated. I think one of the biggest lessons learned from the map pack distribution process was, make sure when you announce a distribution date, it is absolutely the final date..

The bottom line is that Resistance is a PS3 launch title and as a result this is all new for a lot of us, and there are going to be bumps that happen along the way. Fortunately, the fans were actually very patient, even though they were frustrated, and the people who play the maps, love them. We've gotten a lot of great feedback.

Shack: Can you elaborate a bit on those bumps?

Ryan Schneider: I'm trying to think about what I could specify. I mean, was the process ideal? No, it wasn't. There isn't anything specific really to talk about, other than there were dates that were promised and those dates didn't happen at first. There were some last-minute issues with global server coordination, but Sony producer Greg Phillips covered those very well in his PlayStation Blog post. Ultimately, everything worked out.

Like I said before, these things happen from time to time, especially when you are leading the way for this sort of downloadable content. Bumps are bound to happen, it's how you handle those bumps and what happens after the maps are made available. People like the maps, they're good quality maps that were heavily tested here at Insomniac, and I think that we're helping show an effective path for how these sorts of downloads can occur more efficiently in the future.

Shack: Has the map pack sold in line with what Insomniac was expecting?

Ryan Schneider: We typically don't talk about sales, but I can say that we're really happy with the feedback that we're getting from people who are buying the map pack and that's been great. We've seen a lot of positive comments in the forums and from people actually playing them. In fact, every Friday after [we post Insomniac's bi-weekly podcast] the Full Moon Show we have "Resistance Fridays," where we play with our fans, and lately we've been playing in the new maps.

Shack: Is more Resistance content in the works? Maybe more map packs or character skins?

Ryan Schneider: We're always working on enhanced functionality and new content. We actually have some content that hasn't been shared yet, so I think our fans will be happy in the coming months in terms of ongoing support for Resistance. I don't want to go into specifics, but we're not done.

Shack: Speaking of the fans, have they discovered and discussed all of the secrets and easter eggs in Resistance? I remember you were telling me about the morse code messages you had hidden in there.

Ryan Schneider: I think all of the intentional, and even largely unknown, easter eggs have been found in Resistance. The most obscure ones were the garden gnomes.

Shack: Some players have exploited glitches to venture outside of level boundaries in the online mode and use the existence of a lone teddy bear found outside of those boundaries as proof that Insomniac wants gamers to break the game and explore glitches. Is it?

Ryan Schneider: I certainly hope not. I personally have no idea how that teddy bear got there, I really don't. Something we did in our latest multiplayer update was to add a cheater report capability. Using that feature, players can now red flag any glitching or cheating behavior to our moderators who can then immediately jump in, observe, and ban the offender on the spot. I think we probably have one of the strongest and most enforced glitching policies in place [for online matches]. We definitely work hard to discourage glitching, and this new policy is working well for us. We think we may be the first on the console side to include this capability, in fact. So obviously we're trying to innovate in terms of how we keep the in-game online experience as clean, fun and fair as possible.

Shack: Going back to Ratchet for a moment, will Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction support any sort of downloadable content, or is that too early to talk about?

Ryan Schneider: Too early to talk about. We will touch the PlayStation Network somehow with the Ratchet & Clank Future franchise, and we'll be talking about that when the time comes. I can assure you though it won't be something cheesy like nickel and dime weapons upgrades.