BioWare Exploring Mobile Extensions for its FranchisesiPhone (and mobile in general) is a huge component of the games business, in case you couldn't tell from today's big Apple news. While BioWare parent company EA has had much success on iOS platforms, the RPG developer itself hasn't done a whole lot with iPhone so far. Its 2009 companion app for Mass Effect 2, Mass Effect: Galaxy, was not very well received (to the point where BioWare called it a "big mistake"), but BioWare is still very much interested in the potential of mobile.
"We're doing more stuff. EA as a whole is doing more mobile games, and at BioWare we're looking at mobile extensions for our franchises as well," revealed BioWare's Dr. Ray Muzyka in a recent IndustryGamers interview.
Dr. Greg Zeschuk added, "Nothing to announce specifically right now, but mobile's going to be one of the dominant platforms going forward. It's going to be right up there with anything else – it already is in a sense. In terms of dollar share, maybe not yet, but we're just starting down the hill on free-to-play on mobile devices. That's a big thing right now. So yeah, we take mobile pretty seriously."
And while BioWare's experience on mobile has been somewhat limited, the developer does appreciate the fact that mobile's relatively low-risk environment enables the company to test out ideas without worrying about failing.
"One thing we've learned is that you need to lead with gameplay – making sure the core gameplay is really tight. And another thing is just understanding the platform well enough that you really are state of the art in terms of what you're delivering relative to what's there. And sometimes it's just experimental too, and on mobile with something of that scale it's actually a lot safer to explore ideas," noted Zeschuk.
