Canceled Twisted Metal Game Was Part Vehicular Combat, Part Shooter, Part Battle Royale, Dev Says

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 combined the series' 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." These images are tagged with the codename Project Copper, which is thought to be the internal name for the unannounced live-service Twisted Metal game.

Twisted Metal, a vehicle combat video game franchise that originated on the PSone and last saw a new entry during the PlayStation 3 era, was being reimagined by Firesprite as a "third-person vehicular action combat game based on a classic IP owned by PlayStation." According to the developer, Project Copper featured "third-person shooter mechanics wrapped with third-person vehicle combat with the objective of being the last one standing" (via MP1st).

Sony reportedly canceled Twisted Metal 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 was affected by the layoffs.

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Twisted Metal was one of several live service games Sony decided to pull back from, following a significant internal 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 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 major disappointment. 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 from the team behind Days Gone at Bend Studio.

Although it seems unlikely 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 its occasional overload of humor.