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

Brand new images of Sony's canceled Twisted Metal game have surfaced online, suggesting 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 uploaded several screenshots to their online portfolio. Although the images are intentionally blurred and labeled "Under NDA," they are associated with the codename Project Copper, believed to be the internal name for the unannounced live-service Twisted Metal game.

While Twisted Metal is a vehicle combat franchise that originated on the PSone and hasn't seen a new entry since the PlayStation 3 generation, 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 explained: "It had third-person shooter mechanics wrapped with third-person vehicle combat with the objective of being the last one standing" (thanks, MP1st).

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

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Twisted Metal was sidelined as part of Sony's broader retreat from live service games, following a significant internal effort to develop more such titles. Naughty Dog halted development on The Last of Us Online in December 2023, noting that it would have required dedicating all its resources to post-launch content for years, which would have severely impacted its ability to produce future single-player games.

Despite Arrowhead’s Helldivers 2 becoming a breakout hit and the fastest-selling PlayStation Studios game of all time, with 12 million copies sold in just 12 weeks, Sony’s live service hero shooter Concord turned out to be one of the biggest video game flops in PlayStation history. It lasted only a couple of weeks before being taken offline due to extremely low player numbers, leading Sony to eventually cancel the game entirely and shut down its developer.

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

While it appears unlikely we'll see another Twisted Metal game in the near future, the Twisted Metal TV series starring Anthony Mackie is set to continue with Season 2 on Peacock. IGN's review of Twisted Metal Season 1 gave it an 8/10, stating: "Though overloaded with jokes at times, Twisted Metal is a miraculously enjoyable blend of comedy, violence, and thoughtfulness."