"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 Sony-owned Firesprite shared these screenshots on their online portfolio, though the images are blurred and marked "Under NDA." They are tagged under the codename Project Copper, which is thought to be the internal name for this unannounced Twisted Metal live-service game.

Originally launched on the PSone, Twisted Metal is a well-known vehicle combat franchise that 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." The game was intended to feature third-person shooter mechanics intertwined with third-person vehicle combat, with the goal of being the last player standing.

Sony reportedly canceled Twisted Metal amid mass layoffs announced in February 2024. At the time of cancellation, the game was still in development at UK studio Firesprite and had not yet been greenlit.

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Twisted Metal fell victim to Sony's broader retreat from live service games, a move that followed a significant internal effort to develop more of these titles. Naughty Dog, for instance, ceased development on The Last of Us Online in December 2023, citing the need for extensive resources for post-launch content that would have hindered their ability to create future single-player games.

While Helldivers 2 by Arrowhead became a breakout success, selling 12 million copies in just 12 weeks and becoming the fastest-selling PlayStation Studios game of all time, Sony's live service hero shooter Concord turned out to be a major disappointment. It lasted only a couple of weeks before being taken offline due to extremely low player engagement. Sony eventually decided to terminate the game and close its developer.

In January, Sony canceled two additional unannounced live service games, one from Bluepoint working on a God of War title, and another from Bend Studio, the developers behind Days Gone.

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