What has happened to Digital Chocolate? A number of people have asked PocketGamer.biz that question in recent months, with the company having been uncharacteristically quiet – certainly in terms of media coverage.

Is it struggling? Up for sale? Getting out of mobile entirely? Or has it just edged off the media radar while honing its cross-platform strategy? Go by what founder Trip Hawkins says, and it's decidedly the latter.

Hawkins says Digital Chocolate's mobile business is "steadily improving", despite the struggles of getting its original games into prime slots on operator decks. "We've been profitable for a while now, which seems a rarity among mobile game companies," he tells PocketGamer.biz.

"Of course, we have to scratch and claw for every penny, but we are a well organised and productive developer, and our revenue growth is accelerating. For the last several quarters our growth rate has increased, and we know we are growing faster than our competitors, since almost all of them are public companies that report their numbers."

There have, nonetheless, been a number of rumours that Digital Chocolate is up for sale – rumours that Hawkins himself says he's heard at the CTIA show this week. He flatly denies them as "false".

"The truth is that we are focused on making sure we are a successful independent company, which especially makes sense given the economic climate. We are not one of those money-losing companies that needs to shut down. We are not one of those companies that can't make it on our own. We are not one of those companies that is running out of cash."

Free web games

One strategy that seems to be paying off for DChoc – in terms of awareness at least – is launching its games as free web titles. So far, the company has launched more than 12 titles online, with 2-3 more being added every month, according to Hawkins.

"A typical original mobile game for us last year would only produce 10,000 page hits on a Google search, but now some of our web games will produce upwards of one million page hits from search results," he says.

"We have served over 100 million free game trials this year, and all of them include a mobile upsell button. Already a few million consumers have clicked on that button, which enables them to get a link sent to their phone, which takes them to the purchase page for the game on the carrier deck."

Is this strategy working though? How many of those few million customers clicked on that link and bought games?

As evidence that a decent proportion did, Hawkins says that last month, two of Digital Chocolate's own-IP games – Brain Tester 24 Pack and Mini Golf: 99 Holes – made it into Verizon's Top 20 Sellers chart.

iPhone, N-Gage, Facebook, XBLA, AvaPeeps…

However, it seems Digital Chocolate shouldn't really be seen as a mobile games publisher that dabbles online any more.

"We have harnessed our technology base to produce across all platforms from roughly the same studio impetus," he says, pointing out that the company can now roll games out for mobile, N-Gage and iPhone, while also making free and premium PC versions, Facebook games, and Xbox Live Arcade versions.

"Microsoft has approved our first project for Xbox, which is Tower Bloxx Deluxe 3D," he says. "Our first iPhone and N-Gage apps will launch in Q4, and Xbox will follow."

Ultimately, where this is heading to is games (or applications) that can be accessed from many of these platforms in different ways, rather than separate standalone games launched for each of them. A good example may just be AvaPeeps, DChoc's long-trailed avatar-based flirting application.

"With AvaPeeps, we are offering what I think is arguably the first multimedia application with a consistent client experience across all platforms and a converged server side," he explains. "The server code is universal, and you can reach your account and your avatar from any platform, and the client experience feels consistent on all platforms."

AvaPeeps has launched already as a mobile application on T-Mobile, Virgin and Boost in the US, and will launch soon on 3 UK and AT&T in the US, while also launching on Facebook and iPhone in the fourth quarter of this year, according to Hawkins.

This is where his theory of the 'Omni Media Market' fits in, which he outlined in a speech at the Casual Connect conference earlier this year. He describes it as "personal, digital, short-form networked media that is being consumed by true mass consumers", into which many casual or social games fit.

"My thesis is that for the first time, games will reach a billion consumers and that the biggest platform in use will be mobile phones," he says, indicating that this is the current driver behind Digital Chocolate's decision to go cross-platform.

"We also believe we will be one of the pioneers of new converged services where the public expects to use the brand in a consistent fashion regardless of the client device," he says. "There will be great synergy using the web for viral spread and free trial, and the mobile side for consumer benefit and monetisation."