[September 28, 2005] Wireless Industry Embraces Digital Chocolate's New Social Games for Mobile Phones; First Game in Series to Launch in October; Major Carriers and Industry Show Support at CTIA WIRELESS I.T. & Entertainment 2005 Tweet SAN MATEO, Calif. --(Business Wire)-- Sept. 28, 2005 -- Digital Chocolate, Inc.'s new series of social games unveiled last week at the DEMOfall 2005 conference is receiving extensive support from the wireless industry, including major carriers and industry organizations. The new games allow consumers to play and connect with friends and members of the Digital Chocolate community, redefining how consumers interact with their mobile phones. Trip Hawkins, CEO of Digital Chocolate, during his keynote address to the CTIA conference, said that the first of these new games, Mobile League Sports Network(TM) (MLSN(TM)) Sports Picks, will be launched on Sprint, Cingular, and other major wireless operators, which together comprise more than 130 million handset owners. MLSN Sports Picks will be available in October for a monthly subscription of $2.99. "Carriers share our vision that social games are perfectly suited to the mobile platform, because they bring together the community of networks, the ubiquity of wireless devices, and the fun and competition of playing games," said Mr. Hawkins. "This widespread carrier support speaks to the power of these games and is of great value because of the interoperability of the service. Your friends are likely to be able to play with you because of the broad carrier support we have lined up." These new games are based on an innovative client-server architecture which allows Digital Chocolate to create a game-play model based on networked communities of interacting players with regularly refreshed content. With MLSN Sports Picks, members predict outcomes to upcoming sports events to earn points and gain recognition. To ensure that they receive questions about sports, teams, and leagues that most interest them, members can select their sports preferences. Members can compete and interact in public leagues sponsored by Digital Chocolate, or they can create their own private leagues and invite friends to join them for more serious competition. To further fuel friendly rivalries, players can use the 'Trash Talk' feature to taunt and communicate with each other through in-product text messaging. "Sprint is excited that Digital Chocolate has developed social games that capitalize on the natural social community of wireless networks," said Jason Ford, general manager of games at Sprint. "And by developing games that are specifically tuned to a mass market -- such as MLSN Sports Picks, which appeals broadly to casual sports fans -- Digital Chocolate has created the means for users of all interests to stay connected." Following the launch of MLSN Sports Picks, Digital Chocolate will release two avatar-based games in early 2006, which are also based on the new client-server architecture. AvaFlirting(TM) invites members of the community to create avatars that go on digital dates and report back on what they did and where they went. Members can revise strategies for their avatars from date to date and make new friends along the way. Digital Chocolate is also developing AvaCars(TM), an avatar-based game in which members can build and customize digital cars. Members can race against each other, create car clubs, and communicate with each other using text and picture messaging, building communities around their love of cars. About Digital Chocolate Digital Chocolate is a developer of games and applications for mobile phones. Based in San Mateo, California and founded in 2003 by software gaming pioneer Trip Hawkins, Digital Chocolate offers some of the world's most popular and highly acclaimed games, including Mobile League WordJong, Mafia Wars, and Johnny Crash. Since its inception, Digital Chocolate has secured relationships with more than 200 carriers and partners, including Cingular, Orange, Sprint, T-Mobile, 3, Verizon Wireless, and Vodafone and its products are available in over 60 countries around the world. For more information, please visit www.digitalchocolate.com. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]