There was some more disheartening news from the game industry today. I’m sure you are already familiar with the news, but Sony unveiled plans to eliminate 900 jobs within the PlayStation Studios. It’s a trend we hope to see end as it’s been ongoing for a long time now. While we’re still dealing with the blowback in the gaming industry after the pandemic wrapped, we’re learning at least one game that was killed off from this recent batch of layoffs, and that’s Twisted Metal.
The Twisted Metal franchise has been around for ages now, as it first came out in 1995. Since then, we have seen installments released over the years on the PlayStation line of console platforms and even their PlayStation Portable handheld. However, their latest installment to find its way out into the marketplace was in 2012, when the PlayStation 3 saw a reboot for the series.
While it was well received, it didn’t spark enough attention to apparently warrant another installment. That was until recently when it seemed like a live service attempt was underway at Firesprite. This was a game being worked on before Sony canceled it. That’s at least what we’re hearing from a reliable industry insider and reporter, Jason Schreier.
Earlier today, Sony unveiled plans to lay off 900 employees across their various PlayStation Studios. Included was the shutdown of the London-based studio for PlayStation. However, beyond that, several unannounced games were killed off from various stages of development. One of those games was the Twisted Metal live service project.
According to Jason on their X social media account, this game was still early in development, and it wasn’t even greenlit to become a full production. It’s worth noting that other rumors online suggested Twisted Metal was near complete and soon set to land into the marketplace. So, while this game didn’t quite make it out of the gates, it doesn’t seem that much work was spent on the project.
We don’t know what the other games are that were killed off with this recent batch of layoffs. Meanwhile, there’s no word on whether we’ll see another take on Twisted Metal come to fruition. There is a streaming series on Peacock based on the vehicular combat game. That might pique some more interest in the series, especially since a second season was picked up.
