Insomniac considering more Ratchet titles

Insomniac Games has refused to rule out more Ratchet & Clank games in the future. Although the developer has no firm plans for a sequel at the moment, according to company representatives speaking to us at E3, "We're going to decide that come November."

Meanwhile, reps told us that Insomniac is not currently working on any PlayStation 3 or PlayStation Portable projects, and in fact won't be looking into any other projects at all until the third game in its platformer series ships.

Asked about the possibilities for more Ratchet & Clank titles, senior developer Brian Hastings told us that the 115-strong team (including a huge testing component) is focused solely on Ratchet & Clank 3 and nothing else for now.

"At this point we're just taking it one game at a time and concentrating on this," he said during an E3 presentation of R&C3, "but after November [when the game is released] we're re-evaluating and seeing what we're gonna do. We're very happy with the Ratchet universe, and we feel like there's a lot more potential for future projects."

Asked if Insomniac was working on anything for the PSP, Hastings told us, "At this point we're not. We're very happy and excited about the PSP - as is everyone - but we just don't have time to do a second project." The same apparently goes for PlayStation 3. "We've got everybody we can just working on this game," was his response to the next-generation question.

Still, one thing is arguably quite certain - whenever we do hear about Insomniac's next game, we'll be talking about it in the same breath as whatever Naughty Dog gets up to. In fact, we asked, isn't it about time for a crossover title, since the two developers share so much technology, so many column inches, and by the sounds of it so much beer?

"We've been joking about it," Hastings said of a possible Jak Vs. Ratchet-style crossover. "You know, 'who would win', stuff like that, but we've never really thought about it seriously. Er, who knows? [Laughs] You never know!" Fellow developer Brian Allgeier wasn't so sure. "I don't think Clank and Daxter's personalities would really match!"

Perhaps not, but we wouldn't be altogether surprised if cameos weren't out of the question somewhere down the line. We wonder what odds we'd get on a hidden Jak skin making it in to the Ratchet & Clank 3 multiplayer mode...

Expect to hear more about Ratchet & Clank 3, including full impressions from E3, sometime soon.