Digital Chocolate

Mitch Lasky has left the building

Mon, 26 Mar 2007 20:01:38 -0400

Mitch Lasky has stepped down from his position as Executive Vice President of Mobile and Online at Electronic Arts to become a partner at Benchmark Capital. Mobile gaming is a tough business (recall that Lasky was recently dissed on stage by Digital Chocolate's Trip Hawkins), so perhaps it's no surprise that Lasky's new role doesn't appear to have much to do with gaming. Lasky will be succeeded by Michael Marchetti, currently the COO of EA's mobile division.

Trip Hawkins: Forget 'bigger and better'

Mon, 05 Mar 2007 19:01:38 -0500

Game developers love to create bigger, better and flashier titles, which is one reason we're losing sight of what really works on the mobile phone--and losing our best developers to console and PC gaming, warns Digital Chocolate's Trip Hawkins. "There is definitely room for more originality and healthier competition," he said in his GDC Mobile keynote address. This news may not be a shock to seasoned mobile developers (especially those who have heard Hawkins talk before), but it is a good point: Writing mobile games is a tough business with a myriad of technical and business obstacles. There isn't a lot of room for error, so focus very carefully on on your customers and make sure you're doing everything possible to make you title attractive to carriers. For more on Hawkins speech, check out FierceGameBiz.

Trip Hawkins takes on Mitch Lasky

Mon, 05 Mar 2007 19:01:38 -0500

In his GDC Mobile keynote, Digital Chocolate's Trip Hawkins spoke out against the "conventional wisdom" espoused by Mitch Lasky at his 2006 GDC keynote. Last year, Lasky railed against the poor quality of most mobile games and declared that without some solid hits, many of these publishers would not survive. (See my write-up of Lasky's 2006 keynote). Hawkins rejected the idea that publishers can't survive without hit titles. A year ago, Digital Chocolate had no hits, but "we're alive and well," Hawkins declared. More on the keynote at FierceGameBiz.

Editor's Corner

Mon, 12 Feb 2007 19:01:39 -0500

Looking ahead to GDC
3GSM may be grabbing all the wireless industry headlines this week, but for mobile game developers the fun doesn't start until next month at GDC.

The pre-show buzz is focusing on Nokia's expected re-launch of the N-Gage. Nokia is keeping quiet before the announcement, but as I wrote in October, Nokia's next-generation N-Gage will not just be a single device; instead it will be a gaming platform spread across several S60-based phones. MarketingWeek reports that Nokia is talking to Disney, Sega of America and Vivendi Games about creating games for the platform, and Pocket Gamer adds Sony, Capcom, EA Mobile and others to that list. The N-Gage relaunch has been a long time coming; expect Nokia to make a very big deal out of this.

Other GDC highlights are expected to be Sonivox's mobile version of Guitar Hero (the successful console game of which I am a huge fan) and, well, whatever Trip Hawkins has to say.

Also don't forget that you can come party with me and FierceGameBiz editor Nathan Eddy on Wednesday, March 7th at the Portal One Arcade. RSVP and partnership information is available at the Game On! website. -Eli

P.S. If you're looking for 3GSM news, tune in to the FierceWireless dedicated 3GSM channel for updates throughout the week.

Editor's Corner

Mon, 20 Nov 2006 19:01:39 -0500

Special report on mobile warez

"I guess it is flattering if we are making stuff that is good enough to steal or collect, but it's a pity these pirates won't help us pay for our costs to keep supplying them."
-Digital Chocolate CEO Trip Hawkins

I believe piracy is an important (and underreported) issue for mobile developers, so I am pleased to announce the release of a FierceDeveloper Special Report: Mobile Software Piracy. The report is by no means exhaustive, but I think it does provide a nice overview of the situation. Expect a future report on some of the specific things developers can do to deter pirates without losing customers. -Eli

Want to see more reports like this? Got a tip for a future article? Send me an email.

P.S. Next week FierceDeveloper will be hosting the Carnival of the Mobilists. If you would like to recommend a blog post for inclusion, send me an email.

QUICKLINKS: Intel sells mobile processor division; MapQuest, Weather Channel top mobile app list; Much more...

Tue, 04 Jul 2006 20:01:35 -0400

Intel sells off XScale/Mobile processor unit to Marvell for $600M. Article

Report: MapQuest, Weather Channel are the most popular mobile apps. Blog

WiFi-enabled BlackBerry expected this year. Blog

Courting the adult viewer. Article

Palm halts Treo 650 shipments to Europe. Article

Trip Hawkins: Social gaming is the next step. Blog

Top developers and average developers. Blog

Verizon Wireless agrees to prorate early termination fees. Blog

Google updates RSS reader. Blog