PlayStation's cancelled reboot of its vehicular combat classic was reportedly a battle royale that let you exit the vehicles

The unannounced Twisted Metal reboot was apparently a battle royale game that sounds an awful lot like Sony's other failed vehicular combat game Destruction All Stars.

Alongside layoffs that affected roughly 900 employees last year, Sony also reportedly scrapped a new Twisted Metal game that was said to have been in development at Firesprite Studios. The cult classic vehicular combat game hadn't received a new entry since 2012, so the reboot would've nicely slotted next to the ongoing TV series.

We now know roughly what Sony was planning with the revival, if details from a former developer's CV are to be believed. The ex-Firesprite developer said they were working on a "vehicular action combat game" that was "based on a classic IP owned by PlayStation." This particular reboot was apparently also going to let you out of the vehicles that most people play vehicular combat games for, and feature third-person shooting where the aim was to be the last player standing. So, every other battle royale but this time with Sweet Tooth? Blurred screenshots show the third-person cover shooting they were talking about, too.

Sony's live service push hasn't been going great. While Helldivers 2 was a galaxy-sized hit last year, PlayStation's Concord was a historic flop and the publisher's since cancelled several multiplayer hopefuls, including The Last of Us Online and two unannounced games from the Demon Souls and Days Gone studios - one of which was said to be a God of War multiplayer game of some kind.

Former SIE exec Shuhei Yoshida recently said that Playstation's never given its studios a live service mandate, but many of them know the chances of getting the thumbs up on a pitch are significantly higher if it includes online elements. One has to wonder if the mega-publisher would need to cancel so many games if it just, you know, let successful single-player teams make what they're good at.

Look forward to some not-so-cancelled game with our new games of 2025 guide.