Sony Reviving Twisted Metal As Project Copper

A number of fans were excited by the news of a possible Twisted Metal Reboot last year. Reviving the series would have been a step in the right direction for players who have been demanding that PlayStation become more reliant on its catalog of older games to attract long-time players. Regardless, the reported Reboot was canceled, and the series has remained in limbo. However, some details about the game have leaked online, indicating there's still a possibility for Sony to bring the series back.

News of the canceled live-service Twisted Metal game has appeared on the internet, revealing a project that would have had the series follow a path divergent from that to which it has grown familiar. Twisted Metal was ready for a comeback success, with its TV show doing well and a reboot game in the works, but now that game is canceled, it might be much longer before the series is going full steam again.

In a report from VGC, additional details of the recently shelved Twisted Metal reboot emerged, detailing what doing so would have been like. The revised CV of a developer who was the lead UI programmer at PlayStation-owned Firesprite studio shows a game titled Project Copper. Though the developer does not mention Twisted Metal by name, there aren't many other games that this could have been since their track record fits the dev cycle of the speculated game, and project details seem to fit the franchise.

Project Copper is a third-person vehicular action combat title based on a retro PlayStation IP. This canceled game was a third-person shooter and included what seemed to be a battle royale-style game, where the stated aim was to become "the last one standing". The CV included four blurry photos labeled "UNDER NDA", two of which proudly displayed what car combat looked like, including the framing and tone of previous Twisted Metal games, and the other photos showing the player in a far more vulnerable state on foot, dodging and covering from the guns of enemy attackers.

There is tough competition in the battle royale space, and Project Copper's entry into this space would have been a departure from the traditional Twisted Metal formula. However, it was in line with Sony's plans for this console generation, greenlighting a dozen live service games. Sadly, for Twisted Metal fans, this game was part of the half of the set that was canceled since Sony seems to be shifting gears in light of Concord's failure. What the series will end up like after this is anyone's guess, but some still hold out hope that Twisted Metal is eventually given a second chance.