The cancelled Twisted Metal live-service PS5 game from Firesprite was a Battle Royale experience that featured "third-person shooter mechanics wrapped with third-person vehicle combat with the objective of being the last one standing", to the surprise of no one. The description is taken from a developer's online CV, where the game is referred to as Project Copper. They also share some in-development screenshots which you can view through the link.
One of Sony's (many) failed live-service efforts of recent years, the Twisted Metal revival first began life at Destruction AllStars developer Lucid Games. We then reported the title had changed hands to Firesprite, but it was claimed to have been cancelled last year following a round of layoffs at PlayStation. The blurred screenshots contained within the online CV depict driving and over-the-shoulder gun combat.
The long speculated Twisted Metal PS5 game is now one of many cancelled in-house Games as a Service efforts from PlayStation Studios, with others now including a God of War spin-off from remake specialist Bluepoint and another from Days Gone team Bend Studio. A few years after Sony announced the initiative, the virtual graveyard it has created for itself is a point of concern for hardcore fans.
A popular series during the PS1 and PS2 days, Twisted Metal was revived on PS3 but has never been since. It's doing well on TV screens, however, as a second season of the Twisted Metal television adaptation from Peacock is going ahead. This cancelled PS5 project would almost certainly have had some link to the TV show if it had made it to market.
[source hugoflsilva.com, via videogameschronicle.com]
Comments 23
I don’t care too much for live service games. I haven’t played one in many years. With that said, out of all the recent games touted as live service (and shouldn’t have) such as God of War, Twisted Metal is the one that makes sense to be live service. It’s a shame it was cancelled, but that’s just how the industry goes nowadays.
I mean, it could of worked in all honesty.
@Oram77 *could've worked.
@Oram77 yeah, as much as people in the comments hate live action games. Twisted metal would of worked and I still think tlou factions would of been worth finishing.
Twisted Metal games were always battle royales, right?
@Oram77 not with how it was planned to be though with out-of-car combat. It sounds like it would have been extremely similar to Destruction All Stars which failed horribly
I bought Twisted Metal on PS2 in those days as everybody was talking about it. I've played it for about 20 minutes and returned back to Carmageddon. Actually, Twisted Metal is one huge chaos. Even TES:Daggerfall map has more sense.
I’m glad Sony is spending this money elsewhere. There’s nothing interesting to me about this one.
Literally the only Sony live-service I was excited about. That I've wanted a car-focused battle royale experience for years now (Fortnite's faux-Mad Max season was the only time I had a lot of fun with the game) makes this suck even more.
Well... Maybe we can have a remake, at least. SOMETHING for the show.
People do not want a Twisted Metal where you get out of your car. The car is the ENTIRE "character" people care about.
What's sad is, a TM BR (as others have noted) could ABSOLUTELY have worked! There is a HUGE market for vehicle-based live service titles (see: World of Tanks).
They could have done some cool stuff with the BR formula by setting it within a destructible game world made to be driven around at high speeds.
Think...
Every player gets a generic starter car/chassis. Sedan, pickup, motorcycle, semi, SUV, minivan, etc. This is like the "skin" you drop into a BR match with. It's what you start the match looking like.
When you begin your account, that chassis will be rust and bolts.
You drop in just like Fortnite/PUBG by driving out the back of a plane F&F (or Dumbo Drop lol) style so you can pick your landing spot. The map is littered with towns and cities and POIs reminiscent of classic TM maps, connected by highways, rivers, mountains, etc. Think of a Warzone or GTA-sized map.
The map is WHOLLY DESTRUCTIBLE. With enough firepower you can destroy damn near everything. You could lay waste to cities, raze forests, the works (this would be like what they tried with the PS3-era TM).
You gather weapons that get bolted onto your car like classic TM. Except, like a modern BR, you have a 4-5 weapon "kit" you and weapons have rarities.
Around the map would be boss NPC cars... the classic TM cars we know and love. Like a Marvel season in Fortnite where completing killing Dr. Doom allows you to become Dr. Doom (or whomever), in TM, you'd BECOME that character for the remainder of your time in-match. Otherwise, that boss character would join the fray and interact with the rest of the match like any other player-driven vehicle. So if not taken out, they'd come hunting the players like The Butcher in Diablo 4. You hunt them down, or they hunt you down. Choice is yours.
Have in-game proximity-driven CB radio (aka voice chat) that lets players talk, or fire off voice lines and quips to each other. Funny phrases and sayings that would let you trash talk in case you don't want to ACTUALLY do any chatting.
The last human-driven vehicle left standing "wins," but if it ends up human vs AI/boss and the human loses, it's not a "full" win. Getting a "full" win nets you more XP or currency or whatever, while a "partial win" (the human lost to an AI/boss) nets less. Track the difference in the stats. Bragging rights would be getting the "full" win, like a "crown victory" in Fortnite.
As players play matches, they accrue currency (nuts and bolts or scrap) to unlock bumpers, doors, hoods, paint jobs, rims, etc. to customize their chassis. This collection of options (add items every season to fit the season) with a real cash store - the Black Market (nod to TM: Black, anyone?). The BM offers "premium" items/collections of items like nicer paint jobs/textures - candy paint anyone? - unique chassis items.
The core loop being: play huge, bombastic TM-meets-BR matches and then go back to your garage and create a unique vehicle that stands beside the TM characters. Have account levels/goals net you spots in your garage so you have additional vehicles/chassis at your disposal to take into battle akin to a loadout in COD.
Battle Pass items include additional cosmetics, weapon effects (like different color missile contrails and boost animations), songs for your radio, voice lines for your "driver", etc.
Boom. Banger.
@The_Wailing_Doom no they were deathmatches which in essence is what battle royale is , so yeah
twisted metal is of a bygone sony , i’ve accepted that 90s-2000s sony is dead. this sony of today is completely different
Can we just not.
I really think a car combat Battle Royale could work very well. I’m surprised no one else has tried it yet.
But I’m not sure about the idea of getting out of your car here. I’m not really sure why they’d add that aspect.
@MFTWrecks The part where you said you'd start out with a rusty beater actually reminds me of Mad Max, how you constantly upgrade your car over the course of the game. That was a good game in my opinion.
@get2sammyb I think i get it why they designed where the character can get out from their vehicle. Possibly to give option for players to hijack other players vehicle.
It reminds me a bit of Front Mission 3 where you can get out from your Wanzer or kill the enemies pilot with a skill name "Pilot DMG" and then hijack their Wanzer if your own Wanzer is badly damage / destroyed.
It's a neat idea but i don't think that will work for Twisted Metal...
What a weird decision to add a third person shooter to a Twisted Metal game.
But I'm like the other comments - some kind of massive deathmatch Twisted Metal actually sounds fun
Judging by the screenshots the game was in a prototype stage.
@pyrrhic_victory Great game! One of my favorite open world titles. (And honestly one they could easily try and emulate with a "modern" TM if they didn't go the BR/MP-only GaaS route.)
I think tying the player account to a vehicle/chassis they keep updating over time would be a really great way to retain an audience. Let players build a connection to their specific vehicle and handcraft a killing machine that could stand proudly alongside the likes of Sweet Tooth and Grasshopper and Axel and everyone.
Part of TM's design genius (to me) was you could basically always see who you were about to get in a fight with. The characters had pretty distinct profiles you could read, despite the chaos of the match.
Try and recreate that for players and their personal vehicles. It'd be amazing to have top players build distinct machines that, if you encountered them in-match, you could instantly recognize. Shooting for THAT would be super cool and engaging.
Shoot, I was expecting this one. Sad to hear the news. Grew up on TM2 & 3.... fabulous stuff
@get2sammyb So they can sell skins probably :'D
@johncalmc They can sell car skins lol.
@get2sammyb They can sell car skins and person skins. Double whammy.
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