Daniel Tonkin, the former studio art director of IronMonkey (now Firemonkeys), talked about EA's three major mobile games that they canceled in the 2010s, including Dragon Age, an updated version of Dante's Inferno, and an ambitious shooter.
The mobile Dragon Age was initially conceived as a game-RPG based on Diablo. The game's events took place around the same time as 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 undertaking, and EA provided all the necessary support.
The mobile version of Dante's InfernoIronMonkey took six months of research. Together with Visceral, she was attempting to turn the original console game into a 2D side-scrolling action game. The gameplay suffered as a result of a lack of attention from the management.
The third canceled mobile game was the original IP, which was a third-person shooter. It's been developed for about three years.
Dragon Age Mobile and the unnamed shooter were both canceled as the mobile market shifted towards free-to-play entertainment with microtransactions. EA itself at the time had great success with The Simpsons: Tapped Out, which seems to have boosted the company's future.
Tonkin wants more "classic" games on mobile devices, but people don't want to pay for such entertainment.
