Azra Games and the iPhone Duo: How Fourth-Generation RPGs Are Redefining Mobile Hardware

The mobile gaming landscape took a fascinating leap forward on October 23rd with the official launch of the iPhone Duo, Apple’s highly anticipated entry into the foldable smartphone market. Unveiled this past September during John Ternus’ inaugural keynote as Apple CEO, the device introduces a distinct screen size and multiple play orientations that shift and adapt depending on how the phone is folded or opened. Featuring a sprawling 7.6-inch screen when fully unfolded, a 5.4-inch outer display when closed, and the powerful A20 Pro chip found in the latest iPhone Pro models, the Duo boasts the largest iPhone display to date, with an outer display notably wider than most existing foldable devices on the market.

While skepticism always surrounds new hardware categories—particularly regarding whether foldable phones will truly go mainstream or if rigidly designed games will simply suffer from letterboxing on unconventional aspect ratios—many developers are viewing the device as an exciting and transformative canvas. As this premium device lands in the hands of tech enthusiasts willing to pay the steep price tag of $2,000 and up, users are finally able to experience games built specifically to utilize the Duo’s unique multi-screen architecture.

During last month’s Sunrise and Shine keynote, Apple put a spotlight on this new paradigm by showcasing two major upcoming titles running seamlessly on the Duo: Azra Games’ dark fantasy action RPG UnGodly and Timi Studio Group’s Monster Hunter Outlanders. To dive deeper into what made UnGodly a prime candidate for the presentation, and to explore the complexities and opportunities of developing for the iPhone Duo and the broader mobile market, we spoke with Azra Games founder and CEO Mark Otero.

"Console-quality on mobile was the goal from day one," Otero explains, reflecting on the studio’s foundational philosophy. "When we founded Azra back in 2022, the entire thesis was that mobile was finally ready for a true fourth-generation RPG, something that feels like a console game you can carry in your pocket."

Otero notes that this core conviction predates any specific piece of hardware. Therefore, seeing Apple showcase UnGodly running natively on both the iPhone 18 Pro Max and the new iPhone Duo was not a matter of the studio chasing new hardware trends, but rather a profound validation of a strategic bet made years prior. As he emphasized during the hardware launch event, UnGodly was engineered from its inception to place a console-like role-playing experience directly into players’ pockets, harnessing a generation of iPhone hardware capable of delivering modern console-level power everywhere a user goes.

New Hardware, New Opportunities

UnGodly is positioned as a dark fantasy action RPG built explicitly for individuals who want an active, engaging gaming experience rather than a passive viewing one. Bucking prevailing trends in modern mobile gaming, the title features zero autoplay and completely eschews idle modes, choosing instead to prioritize real-time combat, character collection, and a deeply traditional world structure.

Scheduled for release on November 11th, Otero describes the upcoming title as a boundary-pushing project that thrives on the advanced processors and innovative form factors offered by Apple’s latest hardware lineup. On both the iPhone Duo and the iPhone 18 Pro, the game is capable of running at an uncapped frame rate reaching up to 120fps.

According to Otero, Azra Games has cultivated a robust relationship with Apple over recent years, noting that while Azra benefits immensely from the raw performance strengths of Apple’s hardware ecosystem, Apple similarly appreciates having ambitious developers capable of fully leveraging its groundbreaking features. He admits that the Azra Games team had no advance knowledge that UnGodly would be featured prominently in Apple’s keynote presentation, making the reveal a thrilling surprise for the entire staff. They were as honored and astonished by the announcement as the audience watching at home.

When asked whether designing a game with a complex form factor like the iPhone Duo introduces prohibitive development hurdles, Otero is quick to reassure that the process is remarkably smooth for studios already experienced in building native iPad applications. He confirms that UnGodly will launch with full native ecosystem support right out of the gate, allowing the team to take complete advantage of the device’s architectural capabilities.

Apple’s iOS 27 introduces dynamic behaviors that react directly to how a device is angled, folded, flipped, or placed in partially folded states. UnGodly takes advantage of this innovation by supporting iOS 27 Auto Resizability, ensuring players can transition their gaming sessions smoothly whether the Duo is open, closed, or adjusted midway. Apple has also rolled out specialized APIs designed to help applications adapt fluidly across dual-screen layouts, tools that Otero views as evidence that Apple is taking the gaming sector very seriously across its entire hardware ecosystem. While Azra has no insider knowledge of Apple’s long-term product roadmap, Otero suggests it would hardly be surprising if consumers begin hearing a great deal more about how optimized Apple devices are for high-performance gaming in the near future.

Despite its optimization for cutting-edge devices, UnGodly is designed to be accessible across a broad spectrum of hardware. It will run smoothly on older Apple devices and is slated for a simultaneous Android release—in fact, the game is already making waves in its soft launch phase on the Google Play Store. The upcoming global release on November 11th will span the two major mobile app marketplaces alongside PC, Mac, and Apple Vision Pro, with subsequent storefront rollouts on the Galaxy Store and ONE Store scheduled for December 2026.

"This is a free-to-play mobile game, and reaching the widest possible audience is the whole point, so it’s built to scale," Otero explains, emphasizing the practical realities of modern game distribution. "Most players worldwide are on Android, so if the mission is to get this experience to as many people as possible, building for Android from day one was never optional." Designing the game to run smoothly across both Apple and Android hardware architectures has been the foundational strategy since day one.

Years in the Making

Before launching Azra Games, Otero built an extensive career in the industry, with notable credits including EA’s widely recognized Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes. Since establishing Azra in 2022, he has spent the last four years pouring his expertise into the development of UnGodly, though he notes that the underlying experience and design philosophy span decades. In a sense, the muscle memory guiding the project is decades deep.

Built using the Unity engine, the game presents itself as an unapologetically classic dark fantasy experience designed to feel deliberately dangerous. It centers on real-time combat mechanics that require players to command parties of four distinct heroes known as Primals. The gameplay loop actively encourages participants to swap between these heroes mid-battle in order to chain powerful elemental combinations and exploit enemy weaknesses.

The game’s fictional setting is Dunmiir, a shattered realm currently being consumed by a catastrophic force known as The Devouring. Otero paints a vivid picture of this environment as raw, brutal, and unforgiving, shaping characters who are forged in the crucible of a dying world rather than a bright, anime-inspired gacha aesthetic.

For Otero, this project represents the culmination of a theoretical framework he has pursued throughout his career. Having spent a decade immersed in collectible-combat RPGs as an original designer on titles like Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes, he firmly believes the industry is transitioning into a distinct fourth generation of mobile role-playing games. The first three generations evolved from text-based interfaces to 2D menus utilizing auto-battle mechanics, and eventually to 3D environments with interactive battle systems.

The fourth generation, by contrast, finally closes the performance and structural gap between mobile devices and traditional home consoles through 3D real-time combat, treating the game world itself as the primary interface and delivering deep, single-player PvE campaigns. That evolutionary leap is the generation Otero believes will define the next decade to fifteen years of interactive entertainment, positioning UnGodly as Azra’s definitive contribution to leading that charge.

The title has evolved considerably since its inception in 2022, undergoing conceptual shifts and even changing its name along the way. Throughout the development cycle, the ultimate litmus test for the team remained simple: "Is it actually fun?" Otero credits the maturation of both the development team and underlying technology for shaping UnGodly into the experience it is today.

Developing games of this magnitude requires substantial investment. Otero notes that this class of title frequently costs upwards of $50 million to build, marking a dramatic increase from the $10 million to $20 million budgets common just a generation prior, all while navigating a notoriously demanding learning curve within the free-to-play economic ecosystem. Achieving that level of polish and scale cannot be rushed.

Ultimately, Otero remains convinced that recent technological advancements—foldable displays chief among them—offer more profound benefits to midcore gaming genres than almost any other sector of the industry. The intrinsic depth upon which these games are constructed finally has room to breathe when developers are no longer strictly constrained by the limitations of a single, small screen.

Because UnGodly is slated to launch across a diverse array of hardware ecosystems—spanning brand-new tech, legacy devices, and entirely novel form factors—meticulous optimization remains paramount. Adjusting user interfaces, control schemes, and raw performance metrics for each specific device ensures that Otero’s ultimate vision is fulfilled: making UnGodly feel as though it were intentionally and natively built for every screen it touches, including the freshly unwrapped iPhone Duo.