Trip Hawkins launches wireless entertainment firm

Former 3DO boss and Electronic Arts founder Trip Hawkins has announced his latest venture following the collapse of 3DO earlier this year, with new company Digital Chocolate set to focus on the wireless gaming sector.

Hawkins announced his new venture at the CTIA mobile trade show in Las Vegas this week, telling website GameSpot that the wireless space represents "probably the most interesting computer platform in history".

It's still not entirely clear what Digital Chocolate will do, precisely, but Hawkins says that he expects to "do some interesting strategic partnering", and is certainly enthusiastic about the opportunities offered by wireless. "It's a new medium and that's what interesting about it," he commented. "There are a lot of killer apps that have yet to be invented."

In ways this is almost a return to his roots for Hawkins; he helmed Electronic Arts, now the industry's largest independent publisher, through a period when many of console and PC gaming's killer apps were being invented. Later ventures were less successful, though, with the failed launch of the 3DO console and the long slow death-rattle of 3DO itself being significant blots on the copybook of one of the industry's early entrepreneurs.

It's not known whether Hawkins plans to use any of the 3DO assets he acquired in the company's liquidation auction in his new venture. He purchased the rights to a package of older properties, including Johnny Moseley Mad Trix, in that auction, along with the company's various Internet patents.