Don Mattrick Leaves Microsoft For Zynga
In rather surprising news, Zynga has confirmed that Don Mattrick is no longer Microsoft’s head of the Interactive Entertainment Business, and has been appointed chief executive at the social games firm, effective July 8, 2013.
Reports say Mattrick resigned from Microsoft, although it’s yet to be officially disclosed under what terms the exec departed from the Xbox firm.
Mattrick made himself the global face of the Xbox One project, as you might remember, he introduced the system at Microsoft’s Conference this past May. Also, just recently, he officially announced the dramatic Xbox One DRM policy reversal – a move which undermined many of the console’s core features that Mattrick and his team spent years building.
In the days leading up to Microsoft’s DRM u-turn, Mattrick had battled to justify the system, maintaining that Microsoft had made a “good choice” in creating a “natively connected device” despite a widespread consumer backlash over the console’s online requirements.
Leaving Microsoft for Zynga? ….Bazynga?
Where does this leave Microsoft? Well, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer confirmed that the company has no immediate replacement to take over Mattrick’s former post and, at least for the time being, his directs will report directly Ballmer himself.
Ballmer had this to say via email:
“This is a great opportunity for Don, and I wish him success. I am incredibly proud of the work and vision culminating in Xbox One. I’m particularly excited about how Xbox pushes forward our devices and services transformation by bringing together the best of Microsoft”
Meanwhile, over at Zynga founding chief executive officer Mark Pincus will remain Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Product Officer of the company.
In an official statement, Pincus had this to say:
“Don is unique in the game business. He turned Xbox into the world’s largest console-gaming network, growing its installed base from 10 to 80 million and transformed that business from deep losses to substantial profits. And he has grown the Xbox Live player network from 6 to 50 million active members in 41 countries. Going forward, I’ll continue in my role as Chairman and Chief Product Officer. I’m excited to partner with Don and the rest of our team to return Zynga to its leadership role in inventing and growing Play as a core human experience.”
Don Mattrick also commented saying:
“I joined Zynga because I believe that Mark’s pioneering vision and mission to connect the world through games is just getting started. Zynga is a great business that has yet to realize its full potential. I’m proud to partner with Mark to deliver high-quality, fun, social games wherever people want to play.”
All in all, this is a very interesting, and curious move. Mattrick was heavily involved in the success of the Xbox and now he is jumping over to Zynga which has taken its fair share of lumps in the past year plus. January of last year it closed it’s Japan based studio. In August, after other higher ranked Zynga employees resigned, so did John Schappert, the second-in-command at Zynga. Also, included announced were large-scale redundancies and studio closures in New York, Los Angeles and Dallas.
If that wasn’t bad enough, just recently – as in this past June – Zyunga laid off 520 employees. Zynga has had it’s fair share of trouble over the past year and they are trending downward at a rapid pace. So, this is quite the move for Don Mattrick to make. On one hand it doesn’t make much sense to do this, but Mattrick has a really good track record and he sees some untapped potential. So, I don’t know, it’ll be interesting to see if Don Mattrick can save Zynga.
