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Twisted Metal being Developed by Firesprite MotorStorm Director takes lead



VGC reported earlier this week that Destruction All Stars studio Lucid had ceased development on a reboot of the classic car combat series.

We now understand that UK-based Firesprite – which was acquired by Sony last year – is the developer which has taken over the Twisted Metal project.
It's unclear why Sony decided to move the project to its new first-party studio, but it's worth noting that Lucid and Firesprite are located barely 15 minutes from each other in Liverpool, UK – and there's now evidence of staff moving over.

As spotted by a Restera user, Matt Southern – the director of various Motorstorm games, plus the original pitcher for Drive Club – has this month left his role as game director at Lucid to take on the same role at Firesprite.

It's unclear if Southern was working on Lucid's Twisted Metal project or if he'll be working on the franchise at his new employer. Firesprite has multiple projects in production, including the newly-announced PlayStation VR2 game, Horizon Call of the Mountain.
It's unclear why Sony decided to move the project to its new first-party studio, but it's worth noting that Lucid and Firesprite are located barely 15 minutes from each other in Liverpool, UK – and there's now evidence of staff moving over.

As spotted by a Restera user, Matt Southern – the director of various Motorstorm games, plus the original pitcher for Drive Club – has this month left his role as game director at Lucid to take on the same role at Firesprite.

It's unclear if Southern was working on Lucid's Twisted Metal project or if he'll be working on the franchise at his new employer. Firesprite has multiple projects in production, including the newly-announced PlayStation VR2 game, Horizon Call of the Mountain.
Sony announced in September 2020 that it had acquired Firesprite, a studio established in 2012 by former members of SIE Studio Liverpool, after it was closed down by the platform holder.

Prior to its acquisition, Firesprite had been recruiting for two titles: a multiplayer shooter and "a dark, narrative adventure with genre-defining goals".

PlayStation Studios boss Hermen Hulst said at the time of the Firesprite acquisition: "After a number of years closely collaborating on several games together, including The Playroom (PS4) and The Playroom VR (PS VR), I couldn't be more delighted to welcome Firesprite to the PlayStation Studios family as our 14th studio.

"Firesprite is a creative and ambitious studio that is exceptional at building incredible experiences that truly showcase the potential of our hardware.

"The team's technical and creative capabilities will be paramount to growing our stellar catalogue of exclusive games, and I think you'll be excited for what's to come."
It's understood Sony intends to bring back the Twisted Metal game series in time to coincide with an upcoming TV series in 2023.

While our sources did not provide an explanation for the change of the game's developer, one person suggested the poor reception to Lucid's PS5 title Destruction All-Starscould have contributed to the decision.

Sony expressed its commitment to the Twisted Metal franchise earlier this month, when it reiterated on stage at CES 2022 that a TV series is in development and displayed artwork on screen.

The Twisted Metal television project was officially announced in May 2019 and is in the works at Sony's PlayStation Productions movie and TV studio.
 
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Jigsaah

Gold Member
They just recently picked up Firesprite right?

Glad they are getting to work. I hope they consider looking to davidjaffe davidjaffe for some consulting on the game.

Twisted Metal 2 had the best characters and story IMO. I hope they just kinda go back to that comic book style of storytelling. Super dark, edgy, insane.
 
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Ugh no battle royale, please (that's what's going to happen, is it?)

Thats what twisted metal has always been. I guess more of a death match, but same difference

Twisted Metal is Sony’s oldest IP, they weren’t just gonna forget about it. They still even used it in their big marketing campaigns last gen. It’s an iconic franchise that I’m sure once they update it like God of War it will be such an obvious choice

Sony-PlayStation-3-Long-Live-Play-Michael.jpg
 
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fart town usa

Gold Member
My heart just skipped a beat when I read MotorStorm lol. Please, Sony! Resurrect that damn game! On topic, would also like to see a new Twisted Metal, but not sure how they could make it fresh to succeed.
Just have it be like Mario Kart, tracks and items, and then also have an arena battle mode.

Racing in Motorstorm is awesome, picturing that with TM characters and items would be awesome.
 
Looks like Lucid are okay. They had job openings over the last week or so looking for open world developers and online developers.

Unless that new game is a Sony game, I think we can scratch them off of a PlayStation Studio’s acquisition list.
 
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bitbydeath

Member
Honestly if i were Sony i'd get this team to actually make a new Motorstorm over Twisted Metal.
I suppose with how popular multiplayer is these days, Twisted Metal could make more sense.
Motorstorm is a much better series imo though.
There’s a Twisted Metal TV series coming out, so it’s likely being created to help promote it.
 
Honestly if i were Sony i'd get this team to actually make a new Motorstorm over Twisted Metal.
I suppose with how popular multiplayer is these days, Twisted Metal could make more sense.
Motorstorm is a much better series imo though.
I mean, while I much prefer to play single player, I don't see why a new Motorstorm couldn't have a big enphasis on multiplayer, so, I' m not sure that I see your point.
 
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Stuart360

Member
I mean, while I much prefer to play single player, I don't see why a new Motorstorm couldn't have a big enphasis on multiplayer, so, I' m not sure that I see your point.
Well Twisted Metal to me has always felt more like a MP game with a single player mode added, while Motorstorm always felt the opposite to me.
Besides i just enjoyed Motorstorm a lot more to be honest.
 

aclar00

Member
Thats what twisted metal has always been. I guess more of a death match, but same difference

Twisted Metal is Sony’s oldest IP, they weren’t just gonna forget about it. They still even used it in their big marketing campaigns last gen. It’s an iconic franchise that I’m sure once they update it like God of War it will be such an obvious choice

Sony-PlayStation-3-Long-Live-Play-Michael.jpg

Hopefully it works. I played TM2 for years as a kid. All modes were fun to me...Single, 2player battle and co-op. If its going to be anything like the previous ones then it should take inspiration from TM2. It is easily the best and then Black from what i can remember. Whatever 989 Studios did was garbage.

While it wont hurt to have a battle royale mode, i just dont see it being too fun. Team Deathmatch might work better.

Theyd really have to fine-tune the Characters though...and i know people are all for customizations these days, but k really hope its limited to aesthetics and not widely with vehicle weapons. Limited loadouts per vehicle would be nice. Outlaw should be Outlaw, and Sweetooth should be Sweetooth.
 

Lognor

Banned
Motorstorm?! Okay, you have my interest. I played the hell out of the first one, even though it was incredibly bare bones.

Is there actually racing in Twisted Metal games? Or is it just car combat?
 

SilentUser

Member
What're you talking about? Twisted Metal was ALWAYS battle royal...
IMO, battle royale games are competitive multiplayer and Twisted Metal wasn't that (for the obvious reasons). I absolutely loved playing the game splitscreen with a friend against the computer, but I 100% dislike playing online competitive games.
 

iHaunter

Member
IMO, battle royale games are competitive multiplayer and Twisted Metal wasn't that (for the obvious reasons). I absolutely loved playing the game splitscreen with a friend against the computer, but I 100% dislike playing online competitive games.
BR doesn't = Online

It's simply a game style, it was just more popular online. TM is still in fact a BR game.


Poor mans twisted metal .
 
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Poor studio. This shit is going to fail so bad he‘s going to get fired and the studio is going to close. He is about to be forced to take on this dead franchise.
lee-r-wilson-sweet-tooth-jr-ii.jpg

lee-r-wilson-mime-jr-color.jpg

Unless the style is reimagined, and the characters are now mischievous kids. They can MAYBE pull off a slightly more edgy Mario Kart.
tm-33.jpg
 

Dr. Claus

Vincit qui se vincit
They just recently picked up Firesprite right?

Glad they are getting to work. I hope they consider looking to davidjaffe davidjaffe for some consulting on the game.

Twisted Metal 2 had the best characters and story IMO. I hope they just kinda go back to that comic book style of storytelling. Super dark, edgy, insane.

Lol, fuck that. Why would you want someone who thinks every white person is racist trying to make a game? Dude is so far up his own arse these days I don‘t think he realizes what made Twisted Metal what it was.
 

kyliethicc

Member
Poor studio. This shit is going to fail so bad he‘s going to get fired and the studio is going to close. He is about to be forced to take on this dead franchise.
lee-r-wilson-sweet-tooth-jr-ii.jpg

lee-r-wilson-mime-jr-color.jpg

Unless the style is reimagined, and the characters are now mischievous kids. They can MAYBE pull off a slightly more edgy Mario Kart.
tm-33.jpg
Firesprite won't get closed but yeah the game will probably flop
 
Nice . I love me some twisted metal ! I should dust off my psp and fire it up sometime. As corny as it could be , I always liked the lore and trying to get all the endings for each character.

Not sure how I would feel about being not a battle Royale type , since at its heart that's what it is. I think as long as they added enough 1 v 1 "boss" vehicles during missions it could work well as a battle Royale.
Throw in some multilayer vs or even a co-op story mode maybe.
Should be good if Sony is behind it.
 

Markio128

Member
This could actually be a fun online game. I’m a bit tired of the endless multiplayer shooters, in fact, I really don’t play them anymore, so this could get me involved in multiplayer games again, if it’s good of course.
 

K2D

Banned
If this is an R rated reboot aimed at kids, I'm actually interested in what they come up with. I can even see it getting a AAA budget. (not as in budget size, but budget to make an AAA quality production)

I can even see them making a f2p with seasons. Whether they manage to pull that off, however..
 

stranno

Member
Poor mans twisted metal .
Vigilante 8: Second Offence was far more polished than any Twisted Metal on Playstation, to be honest. All maps were completely interactive and had tons of details. It is my favorite vehicular combat game so far. And it has three versions on three very different platforms (PS, N64 and DC), with good graphics and performance in all of them.

Edit: The 2008 remake wasn't any good. Maybe it's time for another entry.
 
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Jigsaah

Gold Member
Lol, fuck that. Why would you want someone who thinks every white person is racist trying to make a game? Dude is so far up his own arse these days I don‘t think he realizes what made Twisted Metal what it was.
It's never a good argument when you speak in absolutes.

It's also a terrible way to get an actual response...people who realize this just think you're ignorant.

Besides that point, his feelings on race are irrelevant. He made great characters and I never said I wanted him to "make a game". I literally said "consulting"...big difference.

What's wrong with you?
 
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The Alien

Banned
Love me some TM, but unfortunately the last good one was Black.

While a good TM woukd be amazing, I'm afraid a bad TM will put the final nail in the coffin for the franchise.
 

Dr. Claus

Vincit qui se vincit
It's never a good argument when you speak in absolutes.

It's also a terrible way to get an actual response...people who realize this just think you're ignorant.

Besides that point, his feelings on race are irrelevant. He made great characters and I never said I wanted him to "make a game". I literally said "consulting"...big difference.

What's wrong with you?

Ignorant? Kiddo, maybe you should back up and ask yourself what you asked me.

Are you seriously trying to suggest that we should ignore his blatant racism when being consulted on a series that thrives on violence, monkey paw tales, and irony? It doesn‘t take a braniac to figure out what would happen if he had any say.
 
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