Company type | Private |
---|---|
Industry | Video games |
Predecessor | The 3DO Company |
Founded | October 18, 2003 [1] |
Founder | Trip Hawkins |
Defunct | 2014 |
Fate | Games sold to RockYou |
Successor | RockYou |
Headquarters | , |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Marc Metis (President) [2] Edmond Chui (VP of Engineering) [2] |
Number of employees | 129 [2] |
Website | digitalchocolate |
Digital Chocolate, Inc. was a video game developer and publisher headquartered in San Mateo, California. It was founded in 2003 by Trip Hawkins, the founder of video game companies Electronic Arts and The 3DO Company. The company focused on developing games for Java ME-based mobile phones, iOS, and Microsoft Windows, and made some non-entertainment titles. Its marketing motto was Seize the minute.
The developer was officially closed in 2014. It has sold its games to RockYou, and its website was shut down.
Digital Chocolate was founded in 2003 by Hawkins after the failure of The 3DO Company. It had operations in San Mateo, Seattle, St. Petersburg, Bangalore, Helsinki, and Mexicali.
In 2004, Digital Chocolate acquired European developer Sumea, [3] which then became its Helsinki studio.
On August 15, 2011, Digital Chocolate agreed to acquire Sandlot Games, a leading casual game developer and publisher. [4]
In May 2012, Trip Hawkins stepped down as CEO to move to a "consulting and advisory relationship" with the company. The company also announced plans to lay off 180 employees. [5]
Galaxy Life is its most successful title on Facebook to date, ranking at 284th bucket of MAU (Monthly Active Users) as of September 13, 2013. [6] In 2013, Digital Chocolate's Barcelona studio was sold to Ubisoft with the Galaxy Life IP and the Helsinki studio was closed. [7] [8] [9]
In April 2014, Digital Chocolate's four remaining Facebook games — Army Attack , Crazy Penguin Wars, Millionaire City, and Zombie Lane — were licensed to RockYou, along with the hiring of its developers to continue work on the games. [10] [11] [12]
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In 2009, the company's game Brick Breaker Revolution won an IGN award for Best Artistic Design. [16]
Mobile Entertainment named the company "best mobile games developer" in 2006 and 2007. [17]
In 2006, Digital Chocolate received nine IGN Game of the Year awards. Its game Tornado Mania! was awarded Wireless Game of the Year with a "perfect 10" score, [18] and the company was named Best Developer. [19]
In 2012, the company's game Army Attack was nominated for the "Social Networking Game of the Year" in the Academy of Interactive Arts & Science's 15th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards. [20]
The company has been included in The Red Herring Global 100. [21]
The 3DO Company, also known as 3DO, was an American video game company. It was founded in 1991 by Electronic Arts founder Trip Hawkins, in a partnership with seven other companies. After 3DO's flagship video game console, the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer, failed in the marketplace, the company exited the hardware business and became a third-party video game developer. It went bankrupt in 2003 due to poor sales of its games. Its headquarters were in Redwood City, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area.
The 3DO Interactive Multiplayer, also referred to as simply 3DO, is a home video game console developed by The 3DO Company. Conceived by entrepreneur and Electronic Arts founder Trip Hawkins, the 3DO was not a console manufactured by the company itself, but a set of specifications, originally designed by Dave Needle and RJ Mical of New Technologies Group, that could be licensed by third parties. Panasonic produced the first models in 1993, and further renditions of the hardware were released afterwards by GoldStar, Sanyo, Creative Labs, and Samsung Electronics in 1997.
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William Murray "Trip" Hawkins III is an American entrepreneur and founder of Electronic Arts, The 3DO Company, and Digital Chocolate.
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New World Computing, Inc. was an American video game developer and publisher founded in 1984 by Jon Van Caneghem, his wife, Michaela Van Caneghem, and Mark Caldwell. It was best known for its work on the Might and Magic role-playing video game series and its spin-offs, especially Heroes of Might and Magic. The company was purchased by and became a division of The 3DO Company on July 10, 1996 from NTN Communications, after NTN purchased New World Computing for $10 million in stock.
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Sandlot Games was a developer and publisher of casual and family-friendly games based in Bothell, Washington, United States. It was founded in 2002 by Daniel Bernstein.
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Playdom was an online social network game developer popular on Facebook, Google+ and Myspace. The company was founded in the San Francisco Bay Area by University of California, Berkeley graduates Ling Xiao and Chris Wang and Swarthmore College graduate Dan Yue. In 2009, the market for games played on social networking sites was valued at $300 million, consisting mostly of online sales of virtual goods.
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The Electronic Entertainment Experience 2021 was the 26th and final E3, during which hardware manufacturers, software developers, and publishers from the video game industry presented new and upcoming products. The event, organized by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), ran as a virtual, online-only event with free access to all, from June 12–15, 2021.
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