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

New images have surfaced online of Sony's canceled Twisted Metal game, 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 shared several screenshots on their online portfolio. Although the images are blurred and marked "Under NDA," they are listed under the codename Project Copper, which is believed to be the internal name for the unannounced live-service Twisted Metal game.

Twisted Metal is a renowned vehicle combat video game franchise that originated on the PSone and has not seen a new release 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 that it incorporated "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 widespread layoffs announced in February 2024. At the time, the game "wasn't yet greenlit" but was being developed by the UK studio Firesprite, which Sony confirmed was affected by the cuts.

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Twisted Metal was one of several live service games Sony decided to abandon following a significant internal effort to produce more of these titles. Naughty Dog halted development on The Last of Us Online in December 2023, citing the need to allocate all resources to post-launch content for years, which would have significantly impacted their ability to create future single-player games.

While Arrowhead's Helldivers 2 became a smashing 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 turned out to be one of the biggest flops in PlayStation's history. It lasted only a few weeks before being taken offline due to extremely low player counts, eventually leading Sony to cancel the game and shut down its developer.

In January, Sony canceled two unannounced live service games, one a God of War title developed by Bluepoint, and another at Days Gone developer Bend.

Despite the cancellation of the new Twisted Metal game, the Twisted Metal TV series starring Anthony Mackie is set to return for Season 2 on Peacock. IGN's review of Twisted Metal Season 1 awarded it an 8/10, stating, "Though overloaded with jokes at times, Twisted Metal is a miraculously enjoyable blend of comedy, violence, and thoughtfulness."