Digital Chocolate, Inc. was a

video game developer A video game developer is a broad term for 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 ...

and

publisher Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...

headquartered in

San Mateo, California San Mateo ( ; ) is a city in San Mateo County, California, on the San Francisco Peninsula. About 20 miles (32 km) south of San Francisco, the city borders Burlingame to the north, Hillsborough to the west, San Francisco Bay and Foster C ...

. 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 f ...

, 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 Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the d ...

and

The 3DO Company The 3DO Company (formerly THDO on the NASDAQ stock exchange), 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 flagshi ...

. 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 portable code for embedded and mobile devices (micro-controllers, sensors, gateways, mobile phones, personal digital assistants, TV set-top ...

-based

mobile phone A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link whil ...

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...

, and

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

, 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 RockYou was a company that developed widgets for MySpace and implemented applications for various social networks and Facebook. Since 2014, it has engaged primarily in the purchases of rights to classic video games; it incorporates in-game ads an ...

, 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 ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

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

Sandlot Games Sandlot may refer to: * ''The Sandlot'', a 1993 film about young baseball players, and its sequels ** ''The Sandlot 2'', a 2005 film ** '' The Sandlot: Heading Home'', a 2007 film * Sandlot (company), a Japanese game developer * Sandlot Games, ...

, 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 an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

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 '' Assassin's Creed'', ''Far Cry'', '' ...

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'' was a social networking strategy video game developed by Digital Chocolate's Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, mos ...

'', ''Crazy Penguin Wars'', ''Millionaire City'', and ''Zombie Lane'' — were licensed to

, 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 Rollercoaster Rush'' is a video game developed by Sumea and published by Digital Chocolate for the iOS and Android (operating system), Android. ''3D Rollercoaster Rush'' is the successor to ''Rollercoaster Rush''. Gameplay ''3D Rollercoaste ...

'' * ''3D Mini Golf Challenge'' * ''

'' * ''Bubble Popper Deluxe'' * ''Bumper Car City'' * ''California Gold Rush'' * ''Chocolate Shop Frenzy'' * ''Crazy Monkey Spin'' * ''

Crazy Penguin Catapult ''Crazy Penguin Catapult'' is an action-adventure mobile game developed by Sumea and published by Digital Chocolate for Java ME mobile devices in 2007, and later ported to Microsoft Windows and iOS. The game revolves around courageous penguins ...

'' * ''Crazy Penguin Catapult 2'' * ''Crazy Penguin Wars'' * ''DChoc Cafe Hangman'' * ''DChoc Cafe Solitaire'' * ''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'' * ''MMA Pro Fighter'' * ''

New in Town ''New in Town'' is a 2009 American-Canadian romantic comedy drama film, directed by Jonas Elmer, starring Renée Zellweger, Harry Connick Jr., and Siobhan Fallon Hogan. It was filmed in Winnipeg and Selkirk, Manitoba, Canada, and in Los Angeles ...

'' * ''Nightclub Empire'' * ''Party Island Bowling'' * ''Party Island Pool'' * ''Party Island: Sexy Trivia'' * ''Petanque: World Tour'' * ''Pyramid Bloxx'' * ''Redbull X Fighters'' * ''Rollercoaster Revolution 99 Tracks'' (2009) * ''Racing Fever GT'' * ''Super Water Bomber'' * ''Strip Club Manager'' * ''

Tornado Mania! ''Tornado Mania!'' is a mobile game developed by Digital Chocolate. Players assume the role of a scientist who has decided to create his own Utopia by collecting buildings with the tornadoes he creates. Gameplay Players assume the role of a scie ...

'' * ''Tower Bloxx'' * ''Tower Bloxx Deluxe'' * ''Tower Bloxx: New York'' *''Super Water Bomber'' * ''

Zombie Lane ''Zombie Lane'' is a social network game developed by Digital Chocolate's Helsinki-based studio and released on Facebook and Google+ in 2011. In late 2011, it was released on the iOS App Store. Players must rebuild their shattered neighbourhoods af ...

Awards

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

IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game 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 distri ...

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 ''

'' 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

MobyGames MobyGames is a commercial website that catalogs information on video games and the people and companies behind them via crowdsourcing. This includes nearly 300,000 games for hundreds of platforms. The site is supported by banner ads and a small ...

Companies based in San Mateo, California Video game companies established in 2003 Video game companies disestablished in 2014 Mobile game companies Defunct video game companies of the United States Video game development companies