My fondest memories of Twisted Metal include knocking down the Eiffel Tower and driving up its toppled remains in Twisted Metal 2: World Tour rooftop battles in various iterations, where jumping between skyscrapers was a thrilling risk-versus-reward strategy and almost every part of Twisted Metal: Black, unarguably the pinnacle of the entire franchise. Similar to the closing of the studio behind Little Deviants, a PlayStation Vita launch title, the last-minute drama suggests a problematic development history, which almost always leads to a damaged end product.

Jaffe himself, who co-founded the studio, also announced his departure. It’s also important to point out that just before the release of Twisted Metal, Eat Sleep Play saw layoffs hit nearly 25 percent of the team. About two years ago, already after two years of development, Sony insisted that the game be given a story mode and get upgraded to a full-priced retail package.

There’s some interesting history behind this Twisted Metal title, a lot of which was touched upon in our recent interview with various team members of Eat Sleep Play. Essentially, the 2012 edition began life as a downloadable, multiplayer-only car combat game - but not necessarily a Twisted Metal title.

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