PS5’s Twisted Metal game was ‘a battle royale with third-person shooting’

PS5’s now-cancelled Twisted Metal reboot was a battle royale game featuring third-person shooter mechanics, according to the CV of a developer.

Sony reportedly cancelled the Twisted Metal live service game, which was in development at British studio Firesprite, as part of a huge round of company-wide layoffs last year.

VGC reported in 2022 that the Twisted Metal reboot was in active development at Firesprite after it moved from original developer Lucid Games. It’s understood that Sony originally intended to bring back the vehicular combat game series to coincide with the Twisted Metal TV series, which launched in 2023.

Now, the first alleged details of Firesprite’s reboot have appeared online, as part of a developer’s online CV.

While the developer does not mention Twisted Metal directly, they refer to a Firesprite project known as ‘Project Copper’, described as “a 3rd person vehicular action combat game” based on “a classic IP owned by PlayStation”.

According to the description, the game “had 3rd person shooter mechanics wrapped with 3rd person vehicle combat with the objective of being the last one standing.” The developer also uploaded blurred images of the game, showing third-person shooting.

Firesprite, which was established in 2012 by former members of SIE Studio Liverpool after it was closed down by Sony, was acquired by the platform holder in 2021. It went on create 2023’s PS VR2 title Horizon Call of The Mountain.

Sony had ambitious plans to release 12 live service games on PS5 by 2026, but canceled half of them after it experienced significant teething problems, including canceling a Last of Us multiplayer game and pulling Concord from sale after just two weeks. Its biggest success, by far, is Helldivers 2, which since launching in May last year, has become PlayStation’s fastest-selling game launch ever.

Earlier this year, Sony reportedly cancelled two unannounced live service PlayStation games, one of which is believed to have been a God of War game.

Speaking following his departure from SIE last month, former PlayStation studios boss Shuhei Yoshida said he would’ve resisted Sony’s push into live service games, was he still in charge at the platform holder.