Xbox boss and frontman Don Mattrick has today left Microsoft to become CEO of struggling games developer Zynga.
In a statement announcing the move, Mattrick had this to say:
“In its short history, Zynga has redefined entertainment and brought social gaming to the mainstream, more than 1 billion people across web and mobile have installed Zynga games, and franchises like FarmVille and Words With Friends have become a part of people’s daily lives.
“I joined Zynga because I believe that Mark [Pincus’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.”
Mattrick had become somewhat of a joke in the past couple of months, after Xbox’s terrible public relations during the X1 announcement, E3 and the eventual one-eighty it seemed clear that something was not right at Microsoft.
Whether the events of the past month have anything to do with his move, we’ll never know, but if one thing is for sure it’s that he has jumped from one sinking ship to another, considering Zynga’s year so far it is clear that he has a lot of work to do to turn the company around. Something he probably couldn’t have done with Microsoft.
Let me know in the comments what you think about Mattrick leaving Microsoft and joining Zynga, it seems like a very strange move to me.
