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," they are tagged with the codename Project Copper, believed 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 hasn't seen a new entry since 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." The developer described Project Copper as featuring "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 the time, the game "wasn't yet greenlit" but was in development at 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 push to develop 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 severely impacted their ability to create future single-player games.

While Arrowhead’s Helldivers 2 became a breakout 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 entirely and shut down its developer.

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

Although it seems 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."