In a new interview with David Edery, Worldwide Games Portfolio Planner for Xbox Live Arcade, and research affiliate of the MIT CMS Program, Trip Hawkins goes into detail on how EA came together, how Digital Chocolate has progressed in the mobile space, and why the console market isn't so hot anymore.

Hawkins said he already had the idea for EA as far back as 1971 when he saw his first computer as a teenager. It wasn't until 1980 that he really knew he would be forming the company, though. He said that he needed "the big idea." This idea turned out to be borrowing management techniques from Hollywood.

"From working with ingenious but egotistical software titans at Apple, I realized that the big idea was to be the first guy to bring Hollywood principals of artist management and promotion to the software industry," he explained. "So the big idea was to treat software as an art form and to promote developers as artists. Also by 1980 I had participated in a difficult transition for Apple in going from two-step distribution to direct retail relationships. I realized that great Hollywood companies all had strong direct distribution, and after what Apple had gone through, I decided to do it that way from the beginning, even though it had never been done before with computer software."

Hawkins continued, "The last key strategic piece was the concept of an 'artists workstation.' This began with my idea that I could attract the best developers if we had the equivalent of a Hollywood recording studio. You have to realize that developers in those days had to use consumer products for development. There were no serious tools for game development. We also had numerous platforms and I wanted a technology strategy that would enable us to help developers leverage their work more automatically across multiple platforms."

As for Hawkins' current company, Digital Chocolate, he believes that it's ideally positioned to take advantage of the influx of more original content in the mobile games industry. "If you look at Japan and Korea, you can see where the world will go. Several years ago the leading mobile games in Japan were retro titles like Pacman, but since then the market has moved on to more innovative and original mobile applications, and the platform is better established as a social computer," he said. "As one example, there is now more email sent in Japan by mobile phones than by PCs. This market transition is underway in the West. What is also exciting for us is that when we show our games in Japan, people tell us they have nothing like them there. We're ahead of the curve."

Perhaps the most interesting part of the interview, however, resulted from a question about whether Hawkins would consider re-entering console development or publishing one day. He quickly rejected the idea and then went on about the diminishing returns of the console space. "I have great respect and admiration for the purveyors of new inventions ranging from the Wii to Grand Theft Auto, but it is a difficult road to hoe. The 3D arms race has been so punishing that most companies lose money trying to keep up. For this reason, publishers are afraid to experiment and innovate because it is so expensive to do so. I think this means the golden age for console is over. However, it is thriving on the Internet, as evidenced by entrepreneurial companies like NeoPets, Sportsline, and PopCap Games. These guys have been willing to think outside the box."

You can read the entire interview on Edery's Game Tycooon blog.