Guys really? I mean, I'd make him consider HTML5/JS if I were you, and since he has MySQL/PHP experience I'd figure he has some webdev experience. C, C++, Java is all too complex for a starter IMHO.
Well, we don't know if he wants to do web based games, which is why I was curious about what platforms he was targeting. If he wants to write native code for a platform, then HTML/JS are going to be poor choices.
Secondly, Java is often used as a language for teaching beginners (and the OP isn't even a beginner programmer), so can hardly be considered too complex. Anybody who has experience with programming paradigms and techniques should be able to pick up the three languages you mentioned without a lot of difficulty.