"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, revealing that developer Firesprite was working on a live service game that mixed the franchise's iconic vehicular combat with battle royale elements.

A former UI developer at Sony-owned Firesprite shared several screenshots on their online portfolio. Although the images are blurred and marked "Under NDA," they fall under the codename Project Copper, which is thought to be the internal name for this unannounced Twisted Metal live-service game.

Twisted Metal is a well-known vehicle combat video game series that originated on the PSone and hasn't had 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 explained: "It had third-person shooter mechanics combined with third-person vehicle combat, with the goal of being the last one standing" (thanks, MP1st).

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

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100 ImagesTwisted Metal was set aside as Sony pulled back from live service games after a significant internal effort to develop more of these titles. Naughty Dog halted development on The Last of Us Online in December 2023, stating that it would require all its resources to focus on post-launch content for years, severely affecting its ability to create future single-player games.

While Arrowhead's Helldivers 2 became a smash hit, selling 12 million copies in just 12 weeks and becoming the fastest-selling PlayStation Studios game ever, Sony's live service hero shooter Concord turned out to be one of the biggest flops in PlayStation history, lasting only a few weeks due to extremely low player engagement before Sony decided to shut down the game and its developer entirely.

In January, Sony also canceled two unannounced live service games, including one from God of War developer Bluepoint and another from Days Gone developer Bend.

Although it seems unlikely we'll see a new Twisted Metal game soon, the Twisted Metal TV series starring Anthony Mackie is slated to return for Season 2 on Peacock. IGN's review of 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."