Is Twisted Metal Dead in the Water Already?

Sony made a big deal out of the relaunching of the much loved Playstation era franchise Twisted Metal. Its how they chose to close out their 2010 E3 press conference, and the proverbial hype storm has been following it ever since. Celebrated designer and original Twisted Metal mastermind David Jaffe’s company Eat Sleep Play is helming the project in what looked to be the first game in a long relationship with Sony. Jaffe’s been heavily promoting it and Sony’s completely behind it too, but a few recent developments are making the release of the new Twisted Metal a little shady.

It was announced last week that David Jaffe would be leaving Eat Sleep Play after the completion of Twisted Metal. He’s sticking around through the post launch maintenance contract then moving on to create a new studio. Eat Sleep Play is only 5 years old and they’ve only made 3 games, one of those being a PSN game (Calling All Cars) and another being a re-release of an older game (Twisted Metal: Head On Extra Twisted Edition). So, this new Twisted Metal is Eat Sleep Play’s first full on big budget game.

I’m not going to speculate and about why Jaffe is leaving (he himself has made it very clear on his twitter page) or the future of Eat Sleep Play, but the peripheral news here about Twisted Metal is troubling. Its been announced that Twisted Metal will not have DLC. While not a complete deal breaker very few major titles ship without planned DLC. Even bombs like Homefront and niche titles like Deux Ex have DLC post release. I’m not too familiar with the Twisted Metal format, but I understand it to have a structure that would greatly benefit from map/arena packs or even weapon packs and/or game modes.

Much like Burnout Paradise I see Twisted Metal as having the potential for nearly limitless add-ons. Announcing before release that DLC will not be a factor may not realistically affect initial sales numbers, but it effectively neuters the back end of the game’s life cycle. Even the most successful games still need to be propped up post launch DLC to ensure sales past the first month or so. Either Sony trusts this game to be so amazing that it will makes its money back quickly or they already see the project as a lame duck that’s just waiting for release so they can count their losses and move on. I’m banking on it being the later.

In addition to no DLC, no plans are in place for a sequel. All games, especially ones in established franchises like Twisted Metal, have plans for a sequel. Don’t get me wrong, there WILL be another Twisted Metal game eventually, but to not have plans for a follow up shows that Sony and Eat Sleep Play are willing to abandon all of the work done on the first game, instead of building on it to produce a sequel.

Like other Sony teams Guerrilla, Media Molecule, Sony Santa Monica, Naughty Dog, Polyphony etc. who always have plans to do sequels, Eat Sleep Play should too. Said plans can always be scrapped if the game bombs, but in order to maintain stability at the studio and to help retain the talent pool a future must be assumed for the IP. To be fair, Eat Sleep Play is not a Sony owned team, but the lack of sequel plans hints that Sony is not expecting to make bank on Twisted Metal.

Why would the parties involved let these things happen? It shows a lack of trust in the title and complete dismissal of how the business of gaming works in 2012. Hopefully the game is good and successful, but it almost seems like Sony wants it to fail. Right now they have plans to do mobile games, but I’m calling it, within 6 months of the release of Twisted Metal Eat Sleep Play will be closing its doors, partially because David Jaffe is gone and partially because the talent moved on to greener pastures.