Brand new images of Sony's canceled Twisted Metal game have surfaced online, hinting that developer Firesprite was working on a live service game that combined the series' signature vehicular combat with battle royale elements. A former UI developer at Sony-owned Firesprite shared a series of screenshots in their online portfolio, albeit blurred and marked "Under NDA." These images, labeled under the codename Project Copper, suggest this was the internal name for the unannounced live-service Twisted Metal game.
Twisted Metal, a renowned vehicle combat video game franchise that debuted on the PSone and last saw a release during the PlayStation 3 era, was reportedly being revamped by Firesprite into a "third-person vehicular action combat game" based on a classic PlayStation IP. According to the developer, Project Copper integrated third-person shooter mechanics with vehicular combat, aiming to be the last player standing in the game (credit: MP1st).
Sony canceled Twisted Metal amid mass layoffs announced in February 2024. At the time, the game had not been greenlit but was in development at Firesprite, a UK studio affected by the layoffs.
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Twisted Metal was sidelined as part of Sony's broader retreat from live service games, following a significant internal effort to produce more of these titles. Naughty Dog, for example, 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 was 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 turned out to be one of the biggest flops in PlayStation's history. Concord 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 canceled two other unannounced live service games: one from Bluepoint, related to God of War, and another from Bend Studio, known for Days Gone.
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 Season 1 gave it an 8/10, praising it as "a miraculously enjoyable blend of comedy, violence, and thoughtfulness," despite occasionally being overloaded with humor.
