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 in their online portfolio, which, despite being blurred and marked "Under NDA," are tagged under the codename Project Copper. This is believed to be the internal name for the unannounced live-service Twisted Metal game.

Although Twisted Metal is a well-known vehicle combat franchise that originated on the PSone and hasn't seen a new entry 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," according to MP1st.

Sony reportedly canceled Twisted Metal during 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 shelved amid Sony's broader retreat from live service games, following a significant internal push to develop more of these titles. Naughty Dog ceased development on The Last of Us Online in December 2023, citing that it would have required all its resources for years to support post-launch content, impacting its 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 one of the most significant flops in PlayStation history, lasting only a couple of weeks before being taken offline due to low player numbers. Sony eventually decided to terminate the game and close its developer.

In January, Sony canceled two other unannounced live service games: one a God of War title 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 return for Season 2 on Peacock. IGN's review of Twisted Metal Season 1 gave it an 8/10, praising it as "a miraculously enjoyable blend of comedy, violence, and thoughtfulness," despite its occasional overuse of humor.