We sit down with Insomniac Games to talk about its upcoming PlayStation 5 exclusive, and the benefits and challenges that come with developing a true next-gen adventure. And by that we mean it, with Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart looking incredible running on PS5 hardware.

And so after seeing lots (and lots) of gameplay as part of a preview event, our own resident Ratchet-orian, Adam 'Griz' Mathew sat down with Mike Daly, Lead Designer at Insomniac Games to talk about the upcoming release.

Here's a snippet that includes some unfortunate news about Captain Copernicus Leslie Qwark.

AusGamers: Something has been gnawing at us since the first reveal. In many ways, Captain Copernicus Leslie Qwark has been quite integral to Ratchet and Clank's comedic stylings – he's almost as iconic as your two titular heroes. From everything I've seen, his appearance in Rift Apart seems somewhat token. Are you pulling back a little bit on this character -- is he sort of like a cameo now?

Mike Daly: So in the story of our game, Ratchet and Clank start out in their dimension, where Captain Qwark is a larger than life character and basically impossible to avoid. He sort of leads you through the intro and is present there, but when the dimensional cataclysm occurs, Ratchet and Clank get sucked through while Captain Qwark gets left behind.

That's not the last you see of him in the game, but he's not one of the major characters.This freed us up a little bit more with storytelling and cinematics and bandwidth to expand on the new characters you meet in the new dimension.

AG: Interesting. I also strained my ears to tune into him during our demo session, but the results came back inconclusive. Is that Jim Ward reprising his role as Qwark? I ask because it's recently become public knowledge that he's been quite ill of health.

MD: I can confirm that, unfortunately, Jim Ward has retired, and so he did not reprise his role as Captain Qwark for this game.

Click Here For Our Full Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart Developer Interview