New images of Sony's canceled Twisted Metal game have surfaced online, 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 these screenshots on their online portfolio, although the images are blurred and marked "Under NDA." They are labeled under the codename Project Copper, which is believed to be the internal name for the unannounced Twisted Metal live-service game.
Twisted Metal is a vehicle combat franchise that originated on the PSone and hasn't seen a new installment since the PlayStation 3 era. According to the developer, Project Copper was described as a "third-person vehicular action combat game based on a classic IP owned by PlayStation and developed by Firesprite." They further elaborated that the game featured "third-person shooter mechanics wrapped with third-person vehicle combat with the objective of being the last one standing," as reported by MP1st.
Sony reportedly canceled Twisted Metal during the mass layoffs announced in February 2024. At the time, the game had not yet been greenlit, but it was in development at the UK studio Firesprite, which was affected by the layoffs.
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The cancellation of Twisted Metal reflects a broader retreat from live service games at Sony, following an aggressive 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 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 significant failure. It lasted only a few weeks before being taken offline due to extremely low player numbers, leading Sony to ultimately 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 at Days Gone developer Bend.
Although it seems unlikely that 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 being occasionally overloaded with humor.
