Sony Santa Monica have only internally developed God of War games and Kinetica. Their collaboration with EatSleepPlay and Incognito involved funding and technical support.
So don't count on SSA internally developing a future Twisted Metal and hiring Jaffe to work on it. and Scott Campbell doesn't have a studio anymore for them to even collaborate with. what gave TM personality was the work that SingleTrac/Incognito did. unfortunately Incognito Entertainment split into 2 studios; EatSleepPlay and LightBox Interactive (who did StarHawk). Both TMX and StarHawk failed and thus those studios are no more - and Jaffe's own studio also failed - so it is all up to Sony Interactive Entertainment if they feel Twisted Metal is worth saving as the property belongs to them but I really don't see them repeating the same mistake. It would be naive of them to think appointing Jaffe as head of a new Twisted Metal project would produce better results, and they don't owe the guy a thing. like the whole idea that Jaffe would do better with a better, talented group that could make the most of his ideas - well yeah, you could say that about anybody. but Sony shouldn't have to accommodate him so that he'd be more successful. it should be the other way around. He's not entitled to unlimited opportunities because he directed TM2 & Black.

also, on Head-On - it's imitation of TM2 is deliberate of course, just like TM3's imitation of TM2. It's the World Tour concept. only 3 games went for the World Tour thing, and since TM2 did it best, the other 2 games come off as a poor man's TM2.

Twisted Metal is very similar to the Terminator franchise.

1 and 2 are great, the second being the most popular. The first two intertwine with each other with characters and stories linking. And then the rest of the series is turd and each new instalment just shits on the previous pile of dung.

Personally I think Twisted Metal itself is done but it did open up a new style and genre of gameplay. Right now very few developers have grasped it and developed on the idea and made something better or similar.

That's what a game development company or group should be thinking now. Not, let's do another Twisted Metal.

I think keeping the principles of a story that involves a contest and a wish granted to each playable character at the end should remain but change a lot of the other stuff.

A modern game could have individual players play a set story mode with various characters and an online contest mode where the player makes their own character with a set choice of vehicles and must enter a wish.
After competing in a tournament against other players the victors wish is granted.
It would work along the lines of a period of time set for players to get a high score and the top 10/20 players during that period, make their wish (an ingame developer wish) and then upon winning, the developers will have already had a way to grant the wish - a negeative or positive ending to the tournament.

Could be done quarterly. Obviously a lot of work but it would be a new take on a great concept.