"Canceled Twisted Metal Game Blended Vehicular Combat, Shooting, and Battle Royale, Developer Reveals"

New images of Sony's canceled Twisted Metal game have surfaced online, revealing that developer Firesprite was working on a live service game that combined the series' iconic vehicular combat with battle royale elements. A former UI developer at the Sony-owned studio shared several screenshots on their online portfolio. Although the images are blurred and marked "Under NDA," they are linked to the codename Project Copper, believed to be the internal name for the unannounced live-service Twisted Metal game.

Twisted Metal is a renowned vehicle combat franchise that originated on the PlayStation 1 and hasn't seen a new installment since the PlayStation 3 era. The developer described Project Copper as a "third-person vehicular action combat game based on a classic IP owned by PlayStation and developed by Firesprite." They further elaborated that the game featured "third-person shooter mechanics wrapped with third-person vehicle combat with the objective of being the last one standing," according to MP1st.

Sony reportedly canceled Twisted Metal as part of widespread layoffs announced in February 2024. At the time, the game "wasn't yet greenlit" but was being developed at Firesprite in the UK, which was affected by the layoffs.

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Twisted Metal was one of several live service games Sony decided to abandon amid a strategic shift away from this genre. Naughty Dog halted development on The Last of Us Online in December 2023, citing the need to dedicate all resources to post-launch content for years, which would have hindered their ability to create future single-player games.

While Arrowhead's Helldivers 2 became a massive success, selling 12 million copies in just 12 weeks and becoming the fastest-selling PlayStation Studios game ever, Sony's live service hero shooter Concord was a significant failure. It lasted only a few weeks before being taken offline due to extremely low player numbers, leading Sony to cancel the game and shut down its developer.

In January, Sony also canceled two other unannounced live service games: one a God of War title being developed by Bluepoint, and another at Days Gone developer Bend.

Although it seems unlikely that we'll see a new Twisted Metal game in the near future, the Twisted Metal TV series starring Anthony Mackie is set to return for Season 2 on Peacock. IGN's review of Season 1 gave it an 8/10, praising it as "a miraculously enjoyable blend of comedy, violence, and thoughtfulness," despite being occasionally overloaded with jokes.