Monty's Gaming and Wireless Outlook - Issue 102

The word 'bankrupt' derives from the Italian banca rotta, the phrase for a businessman's bench, which was symbolically broken in two if that particular businessman failed to meet his or her financial obligations.

On this particular Friday, there are several million Englishman who would be very happy to break the bench of one Sven-Goran Eriksson, the Swedish manager of the English football team. Last night, his 'battling' team lost 'valiantly' on penalties to Portugal in EURO 2004 after they were 'robbed' by a 'diabolical' referring decision.

Naturally, it had nothing to do with Eriksson's bizarre managerial decision to defend for 80 minutes. The conspiracy theories are everywhere, but might it have had something to do with who England would have played in the semi-final? Yes, it would have been Sweden, and we know how they like a nice 2-2 draw. Still, it serves us right. What were we doing employing a man is a ringer for Monty Burns (no relative) of The Simpsons?

Away from the hysteria of sporting combat, it was refreshing to see Trip Hawkins jump back into the acquisitive fray. The one-time founder of Electronic Arts has nailed his colours firmly to the mobile games revolution by buying up profitable mobile games developer Sumea with his new company Digital Chocolate. Hawkins' company will retain the Sumea brand for existing Sumea titles and expand the distribution of those titles in the US, and will operate in 53 countries on five continents.

It looks as if the mobile games industry is growing up fast, something the England manager should try to replicate next time he decides to bring Phil Neville off the bench when there's a game of football to be won.