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

Brand new images of Sony's canceled Twisted Metal game have recently surfaced online, hinting that developer Firesprite was crafting a live service that melded the franchise's signature vehicular combat with battle royale mechanics. A former UI developer at Sony-owned Firesprite shared a series of screenshots on their online portfolio. Although intentionally blurred and labeled "Under NDA," these images were tagged with the codename Project Copper, believed to be the internal name for the unannounced live-service Twisted Metal game.

Twisted Metal, a beloved vehicle combat video game series that originated on the PSone and hasn't seen a new entry since the PlayStation 3 era, was described by the developer as a "third-person vehicular action combat game based on a classic IP owned by PlayStation and developed by Firesprite." They further elaborated that Project Copper featured "third-person shooter mechanics wrapped with third-person vehicle combat with the objective of being the last one standing."

Sony reportedly canceled Twisted Metal amid mass layoffs announced in February 2024. At the time, the game "wasn't yet greenlit" but had been in development at the UK studio Firesprite, which was confirmed to be affected by the cuts.

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The cancellation of Twisted Metal reflects a broader retreat from live service games at Sony, following an aggressive push to develop more of these titles. 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 severely limited their ability to create new single-player games.

While Arrowhead's Helldivers 2 emerged as a massive success, selling 12 million copies in just 12 weeks to become the fastest-selling PlayStation Studios game of all time, Sony's live service hero shooter Concord became one of the biggest failures in PlayStation history. It lasted only a couple of weeks before being taken offline due to extremely low player numbers, eventually leading Sony to terminate the game and shutter its developer.

In January, Sony canceled two more unannounced live service games: one a God of War title developed by Bluepoint, and the other from the studio behind Days Gone, Bend.

Although it seems unlikely we'll see another Twisted Metal game soon, fans can look forward to the continuation of the Twisted Metal TV series starring Anthony Mackie, with Season 2 slated for 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," albeit noting it was occasionally overloaded with jokes.