Firesprite's Twisted Metal game among canceled PlayStation projects

A Twisted Metal project was reportedly in the works at Firesprite, according to Bloomberg. It's now been canceled as part of the 900-person layoffs Sony announced earlier today.

The PlayStation maker revealed several projects would be scrapped as part of its reductions. Per Jason Schreier, the Twisted Metal game was in early development and not even greenlit before its end.

The new Twisted Metal was meant as a live-service title. Before these layoffs, Sony hoped to make PlayStation franchises like Horizon and The Last of Us into multiplayer endeavors.

However, those plans have cooled as live-service games have started to fall out of favor. While The Last of Us' multiplayer game was openly canceled last year, the status of Horizon's co-op project is unknown at time of writing.

The only other canceled project we're now aware of from these layoffs is Sony London's online multiplayer game. That project was revealed in 2022, and will end as the studio closes down.

Sony wanted Twisted Metal to go the distance

Twisted Metal is an old franchise dating all the way back to the original PlayStation. It faded away after the 2012 reboot, but last year's live-action Peacock show would've drummed up interest for the dormant series.

After HBO's adaptation of The Last of Us premiered, the PlayStation 5 remake got a sales burst. If that happened with a decade-old game, imagine the turnout for a wholly new game whose show is getting a second season.

Sony's strategy for bringing its games to live-action films and TV was to use these adaptations to boost game sales. As it evaluates its first-party output, that part of its corporate strategy may be not be fully viable anymore.