Daniel Tonkin, former studio art director IronMonkey (now Firemonkeys), said in an interview with the portal Stealth Optional about the three major mobile games that EA canceled in the 2010s. These projects turned out to be spin-offs Dragon Age, mobile version Dante’s Inferno and some ambitious shooter.
Initially, the mobile Dragon Age was an action-RPG in the style of Diablo. The events of the game developed approximately in the same period of time as the events Dragon Age: Origins. The player could create a new character, explore completely new areas of Thedas, and meet new heroes.
IronMonkey has been working on the Dragon Age spin-off for six months. According to Tonkin, it was a really big project, and EA provided all the necessary support. The development of Dragon Age Mobile was led by a designer Mass Effect: Infiltrator Jill McLean. The project received a good response from the original team as well. BioWare.
Mobile version of Dante’s Inferno IronMonkey also dedicated six months of work. Together with Visceral she was trying to turn the original console game into a 2D side-scrolling action game. The team made progress in the art direction and level design, but the gameplay suffered critically due to the lack of attention from management. As a result, the developers did not have time to fix everything by the expected deadlines.
As for the third canceled mobile game, it was the original IP, which was a third-person shooter. Development on it was carried out for almost three years.
As Tonkin points out, Dragon Age Mobile and the unnamed shooter were both canceled as the mobile market moved towards free-to-play entertainment with microtransactions. EA itself at the time experienced great success with The Simpsons: Tapped Out, which seems to have strengthened the further course of the company.
And Tonkin would like to see more “classic” games on mobile devices, but people don’t really want to pay for such entertainment.
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