Digital Chocolate, Inc. was a

video game developer A video game developer is a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large business with em ...

and

publisher Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term publishing refers to the creation and distribu ...

headquartered in

San Mateo, California San Mateo ( ) is the most populous city in San Mateo County, California, United States, on the San Francisco Peninsula. It is part of the San Francisco Bay Area metropolitan region, and is located about south of San Francisco. San Mateo border ...

. It was founded in 2003 by

Trip Hawkins William Murray "Trip" Hawkins III (born December 28, 1953) is an American entrepreneur and founder of Electronic Arts, The 3DO Company, and Digital Chocolate. Career A fan of the Strat-O-Matic Football pen and paper games, Hawkins started his ...

, the founder of video game companies

Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by former Apple Inc., Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry ...

and

The 3DO Company The 3DO Company was an American video game company based in Redwood City, California. It was founded in 1991 by Electronic Arts founder Trip Hawkins in a partnership with seven other companies to develop the 3DO standard of video gaming hardware ...

. The company focused on developing games for

Java ME Java Platform, Micro Edition or Java ME is a computing platform for development and deployment of porting, portable code for embedded system, embedded and mobile devices (micro-controllers, sensors, gateways, mobile phones, personal digita ...

-based

mobile phone A mobile phone or cell phone is a portable telephone that allows users to make and receive calls over a radio frequency link while moving within a designated telephone service area, unlike fixed-location phones ( landline phones). This rad ...

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

, and

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, 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.

History

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, which then became its

Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...

studio. On August 15, 2011, Digital Chocolate agreed to acquire

Sandlot Games 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. The Sandlot Games portfolio consisted of franchises like ''Cake Mania'', ...

, a leading casual game developer and publisher. 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. ''Galaxy Life'' is its most successful title on

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

to date, ranking at 284th bucket of MAU (Monthly Active Users) as of September 13, 2013. In 2013, Digital Chocolate's Barcelona studio was sold to

Ubisoft Ubisoft Entertainment SA (; ; formerly Ubi Soft Entertainment SA) is a French video game publisher headquartered in Saint-Mandé with development studios across the world. Its video game franchises include '' Anno'', '' Assassin's Creed'', ' ...

with the ''Galaxy Life'' IP and the Helsinki studio was closed. In April 2014, Digital Chocolate's four remaining Facebook games — ''

Army Attack ''Army Attack'' is a discontinued social networking strategy video game developed by Digital Chocolate's Helsinki-based studio. In ''Army Attack'', the world has been attacked by the evil Crimson Empire, and the player's mission is to build mil ...

'', ''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.

Games

* ''20Q: Celebrity Quiz'' * ''20Q: Mind Reader'' * ''20Q: Sports Quiz'' * ''2D Brick Breaker Revolution'' * '' 3D Brick Breaker Revolution'' * '' 3D Rollercoaster Rush'' * ''3D Mini Golf Challenge'' * ''

'' * ''Bubble Popper Deluxe'' * ''Bumper Car City'' * ''California Gold Rush'' (2009) * ''California Gold Rush: Bonaza'' (2009-2010) * ''Chocolate Shop Frenzy'' * ''Crazy Monkey Spin'' * '' Crazy Penguin Catapult'' (2007) * ''Crazy Penguin Catapult 2'' (2007-2009) * ''Crazy Penguin Wars'' * ''Crazy Penguin Assault'' (2011) * ''Crazy Penguin Party'' (2009) * ''Crazy Penguin Freezeway'' (2011) * ''DChoc Cafe Hangman'' * ''DChoc Cafe Solitaire'' * ''DChoc Cafe Sudoku'' * ''Extreme Air Snowboarding'' * ''Foto Quest Fishing'' * ''Galaxy Life'' * ''Island God Beta'' * ''Johnny Crash'' * ''Johnny Crash Stuntman Does Texas'' * ''Kamikaze Robots'' * ''Kings & Warlords'' * ''Mafia Wars'' * ''Mafia Wars 2: Scarlottis'' * ''Mafia Wars 3: Yakuza'' * ''Millionaire City'' * ''Minigolf Castles'' * ''Mini Golf 99 Holes Theme Park'' * ''MMA Pro Fighter'' * ''New in Town'' * ''Nightclub Empire'' * ''Party Island Bowling'' * ''Party Island Pool'' * ''Party Island: Sexy Trivia'' * ''Petanque: World Tour'' * ''Pyramid Bloxx'' (2007) * ''Redbull X Fighters'' * ''Rollercoaster Rush'' (2006) * ''Rollercoaster Rush 3D'' (2007) * ''Rollercoaster Rush New York'' (2008-2010) * ''Rollercoaster Rush 99 Tracks'' (2008) * ''Rollercoaster Rush Underground 3D'' (2010-2011) * ''Racing Fever GT'' * ''Super Water Bomber'' * ''Strip Club Manager'' * '' Tornado Mania!'' (2007) * ''Tower Bloxx'' (2005) * ''Tower Bloxx Deluxe '' (2008) * ''Tower Bloxx: New York'' (2009) * ''Tower Bloxx: My City'' (2010) * ''Tower Bloxx: Revolution'' (2011-2012) * ''Santa's Tower Bloxx'' (2006) *''Super Water Bomber'' * '' Zombie Lane''

Awards

In 2009, the company's game ''Brick Breaker Revolution'' won an

IGN ''IGN'' is an American video gaming and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa district and is headed by its former e ...

award for Best Artistic Design. '' Mobile Entertainment'' named the company "best mobile games developer" in 2006 and 2007. 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, and the company was named Best Developer. In 2012, the company's game ''

'' was nominated for the "Social Networking Game of the Year" in the Academy of Interactive Arts & Science's 15th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards. The company has been included in The Red Herring Global 100.http://www.monitise.com/americas/downloads/awards/RedHerringGlobal100_ClairMail.pdf

References

{{reflist

External links

Official Website (archived via Wayback Machine)DChoc Café Games Official WebsiteDigital Chocolate
at

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Companies based in San Mateo, California Video game companies established in 2003 Video game companies disestablished in 2014 Mobile game companies Video game development companies