San Francisco and Seattle. At the OMMA Gaming Conference in San Francisco yesterday, Alex St. John, CEO of Wild Tangent, opened up the day's discussion by making the bold statement that the game console is dead. At Casual Connect in Seattle this morning, Trip Hawkins, CEO, Digital Chocolate and founder of Electronic Arts, said that the iPhone and new touch-screen displays have made the mobile medium into one of the most interesting areas for the gaming industry today. Paul Thelen, Founder & CEO, Big Fish Games, gave a more balanced overview of the state of the industry. He said that the gaming industry is actually growing in a number of different categories and on multiple platforms at once. In fact, Thelen has identified 2,380 distinct areas in which a gaming company could possibly focus.

San Mateo, Calif. - Digital Chocolate, a publisher of entertainment software for mobile phones, said on Monday that it has acquired operations and studios in India and Spain from Small Device Mobile Technologies and Microjocs Mobile, respectively.

Brighton, England - Mobile game developer Digital Chocolate said on Tuesday that it signed an agreement with Nokia to publish a variety of its titles for the N-Gage platform launching in the fall. Titles will include the studio's DChoc Cafe, which blends casual games with mobile community features.

San Mateo, Calif. - Mobile game publisher Digital Chocolate on Friday announced an agreement with LG Electronics MobileComm U.S.A., to pre-load several of its game titles on multiple new LG handsets expected to launch this month.

http://www.bebo.com

Digital Chocolate, Inc., a publisher original software for mobile phones, today announced a series of executive management appointments.  Ilkka Paananen has been promoted to president of studios to lead Digital Chocolate’s global product development. Ilkka, who has served as Digital Chocolate’s European managing director since 2004, will now be responsible for the worldwide production of all company products across its multiple, international Studio hubs. Gary Schofield has been promoted to president of networks. In this role, Gary will drive all facets of the company’s global revenue and operations, as well as lead the marketing, sales and business development organizations worldwide. Jason Loia has been named chief operating officer reporting to Gary and will be responsible for worldwide operations, including porting the company’s software across multiple platforms, carriers and handsets.
http://www.digitalchocolate.com

San Mateo, Calif. - Mobile entertainment publisher Digital Chocolate said on Wednesday that it will create a new mobile game based on "The Sopranos" for HBO. "The Sopranos Bada Bing! Manager" features the likenesses of characters from the series, and is slated for release exclusively for Cingular subscribers later this month.