Zynga CEO Don Mattrick to Depart

CNN: "Zynga Inc. (Nasdaq:ZNGA), a leading provider of social game services, today announced that current Chief Executive Officer Don Mattrick will depart the Company and the Board of Directors effective April 8, 2015. Mark Pincus, Zynga's founder and chairman, will return to the role of Chief Executive Officer."

[Snookies12]

Wow, it wasn't long ago that he switched over to that job. Kinda glad he's out of Microsoft though. Things started to turn around for the better when he left.

[Relientk77]

Yeah, I'm not a fan of Don Mattrick

[zeal0us]

Hell even Stevie Wonder saw this coming.

[Blaze929]

@zeal0us

...no. Just no.

[d_g]

stick with xbox 360

LOL

[WombBat]

Bye Felicia(good riddance)

@d_g
hahaha the guy was a total dimwit

[TheFanboySlayer]

One of the most disliked men in the game industry I think.

[tawak]

@blaze

"F.A.I.L.E.D"

[700p]

i hope he comes back to Microsoft ;)

[morganfell]

"One of the most disliked men in the game industry I think."

And just look at the number of people, employees and fans alike, that swore he could do no wrong.

[BattleAxe]

^^^^

Yeah, and a lot of those people switched over to the PS4 this generation.

[morganfell]

^^^^Then it's because they saw the voice of reason, witnessed a more powerful machine, and were tired of people lying to them constantly waving the magical chalkboard.

[bouzebbal]

apart from xbox dropping kinect i don't see what people mean by things turn around for the better.
i mean it's the same games they announced 2 years ago that are still to come (halo, QB, fable..)
x1 sold a million after 24hours with Don on board. It was a pretty impressive achievement with all the hate at that time.
I just cannot see what became better at xbox after he left, Rare are still working on kinect games, Phil Harrison left and nothing mindblowing.

[mcstorm]

@abzdiine do you keep up with news regarding the xbox one? A lot has changed since Phil took over and the xbox dropped more or less everything TV related and went gaming again. The xbox one has changed massively over its 1st year on the market.

[GMR_PR]

@abzdiine

"apart from xbox dropping kinect i don't see what people mean by things turn around for the better. "

This could be due to a few factors:

1) You don't want to see
2) You are a blind fanboy
3) You like to troll
4) all of the above

I think #4 is the correct answer.

[jackanderson1985]

Nearly 2 years. A decent run to be fair

[Relientk77]

It's been that long already

geez time flies -_-

[bleedsoe9mm]

golden parachute

[AngelicIceDiamond]

4 years ago Steve Ballmer stated the 360 is not a games console.

What do you know Don Mattricks boss said their console is not for the gamers.

And it showed because the 360 didn't have any new Ip's for a while. Don was completely on board with the fact it was just an app box and future Tv console.

And the X1 hardware was built on that idea. You can't tell me Ballmer and Mattrick didn't have a meeting and least wrote the policies and pitched the specs of the console.

The console being underpowered compared to PS4 is what it is, but its how Don delivered the X1, and most importantly the politics that HE wrote for the console.

As for this. I don't hold a heavy heart. I dislike the guy and what he and his team did to Xbox and Zynga. But good luck in his future endeavors.

[subtenko]

AGAIN!? What is up with this guy? Leaves M$ (good for u xbox fans for sure..) now leaving zynga. Whats he doing?

[wakeNbake]

To be fair, its not like he was the one who designed the XB1 and its original vision (that takes alot of people) but Im glad he left anyways.

[immoracle]

Since he didn't design it, he shouldn't have made such bold claims publicly about it either.

[2pacalypsenow]

@immoracle That was his job, Xbox 360 did pretty good when he was in command , no one complained there .
The xb1 was a cluster**** not because of Mattrick but because of what MS as a company wanted to do with the xb1 and when they saw all the backlash they used him as a scapegoat and changed everything

[Palitera]

The design of the [insertbadword] product is not his fault, but the way he dealed with media and consumers is.

His arrogance and lack of charm aside... Objectively speaking, the product had strong perks on its initial always-on state, but he deeply failed to communicate about it, to bring the spot to it, to tell gamers what they would be gaining with their idea.

There was also too much "we will talk about this later", after some nuclearly disastrous PR made people scary, so it got even worse. Second hand sales, for instance: They never revealed which were their plans.

It was an already terrible job (to sell something people hated from the start) terribly done and, if his company communicated better, the product could have had better acceptance by its potential public.

[_-EDMIX-_]

@2pacalypsenow and @WakeNbake

Got to agree as many need to get that he didn't just own MS or anything. MS backed those choices made and he wasn't the only one that solely designed it.

No company just gives such power to one man, hell...lets say they do, you sure that makes any sense? I mean...wouldn't you worry EVEN MORE SO about MS to even just give anyone free reign to do what ever?

lol, though I feel he gets the bulk of the blame and partly so, I don't think folks should just give the sole blame on 1 dude. MS as a whole wanted that concept as they wouldn't be making a whole system around it.

I glad the consumer back lashed made them change the design as that was good for no one. MS gamers or Sony gamers alike. Cause at the end of the day, competition is good and the industry needs to see that this isn't wanted on ANY platform.

Hell, I don't own an XONE, but better believe I spoke against such craziness. I may get one in the future and I damn well don't want Wii U2 or PS5 having that junk in it because of MS.

[Wickerman1972]

He approves the design. Had he said "How's about we make it not suck instead" then it wouldn't.

[DARK WITNESS]

@ 2pacalypsenow

I would disagree on the xbox doing good under his command.

The 360 was already off to a great start before he took over.

Once he was in command if anything that's when it seemed to start getting stale. I would stay the 360 got off to a flying start. He took over and the engines seem to cut out and it was just left to glide.. had it not been flying at such a high altitude from the begging it would have been a lot worse and it was evident once it got round to the xb1 that it was heading in the wrong direction and slowly going down hill

the failures were not his alone, but he was the face of xbox so to speak and he was not a great face to look at, or one that filled you with confidence.

[3-4-5]

Obviously this guy should not be running companies at that level.

He isn't an MLB player. AAA at best.

[Dark11]

Hopefully he join ubisoft soon.

[Muzikguy]

Can't say I'm surprised by this. The fall of Zynga would be a good thing IMO. They haven't done anything worthwhile at all (IMO). I'll admit I played FarmVille when it first came out, now there's what 5? They were late to make an app for iOS and now all they're games I just find as cash grabs. I don't have time for all those time consuming games

[_-EDMIX-_]

Agreed.

Consider the company that even ok'ed his decisions in the first place.

[Gamer1982]

To be fair MS stuff aside he joined a sinking ship. It may have had millions when he joined and have had games making millions but they were on a downward spiral and were not getting more popular the days of farmville are long gone thankgod. They knew that and brought him in to try and fix it yet they need to realise NOBODY can fix that. The problem with these facebook and mobile games as they fade as quick as they come people lust for the next big thing as quick as the last.

[lodossrage]

Exactly.

I've been trying to tell people that very same thing. Zynga was falling long before he took that job.

I'm not a Mattrick fan either. But It's not as if Zynga was the golden company that he solely tarnished. Zynga was losing money way before he came. And their stock drops at the time showed it in spades.

[WCxAlchemist]

Mattrick 4pres 2016

Edit: Something bout his face that makes me want to punch it. Odd really

[PudgeyBurrito]

What a legend. Father of the Xbone then chief advisor to Zynga. These to products are flourishing examples of what old Don can do. I couldn't imagine what the blow to the head brass at the old Microsoft was like when they found out he was going over to Zynga. I'd assume they started thinking maybe he was gonna make a better Xbone for the Zynga peeps. Just think for a second.. Farmville at 900p with the power of the cloud and DX12 at launch along with other exclusives like words with friends and Zynga Poker. He probably quit as I feel Zynga couldn't handle his start power and poor Microsoft again, Having to take a PR guy and dress him up as "Honest Phil.. A gamers gamer" then asking him to be as good as the Mattricks. Jesus. LEGEND>

[TrollHard4Life]

Legend is an understatement to say the least.

[DaGR8JIBRALTAR]

OMG that picture is hilarious!

[Eejanaika]

super glad hes gone. reason why i almost left xbox all together....

TV this TV that
KINNECT KINNECT KINNECT

*SMH*

[XanderZane]

Don needs to retire from the business. I'm sure he's a millionaire anyways. Go to some remote island and live the rest of your life there. It will make you and everyone else happy.

[Godz Kastro]

I used t be until the Xbox reveal. I didnt know how much of a suit he was. Sooooo glad phil took his place.

[affrogamer]

with his Leonel Messi looking ass LOL

[j0ncap125]

Poor guy can't do anything right. Hope he had a sweet severance package setup!

[obz]

Lol even Zynga doesn't want him.

[OtakuDJK1NG-Rory]

more like he just going to company to company trying run them down
tried to with xbox division, now failed with zynga somewhat.

[gangsta_red]

You have got to be kidding me!? CEO's stepping down, former CEO's stepping up, high paid executives staying for 6 months, grabbing stock options then leaving, CEO's putting their "friends" in high positions.

No one else notices this is a high class chop shop of a company?

The sad thing is failed CEO's never get demoted, they just become failed CEO's at another huge company. I mean isn't that insane? Any other job this would never happen, if you suck at something no job would hire you for that position.

[audiophile101]

Actually he isn't leaving because he did a bad job. He was brought in to get the company out if the red and be profitable again, which he has now been successful in.

Read the article and you would have found that out instead of just reading the headline

[lameguy]

From another article last week:

Zynga has posted declining revenues and widening losses since Don Mattrick took the helm of the company. However, the software maker was already trending down on both these fronts. Zynga was a turnaround project when he stepped in. That said, losses last quarter increased to $45 million from $25 million in the prior year.

The article today is full of market speak which hasn't translated to much.

[gangsta_red]

Interesting because reading other articles Zynga hasn't posted any financial earnings as of yet and they are still being smashed by other companies in the mobile gaming market like Machine Zone, King and Supercell.

And when does a CEO suddenly leave a company when he turns it around and makes a profit? And then the original CEO who dug the hole in the first place gets put back in charge? Doesn't sound like things were turning around.

Also from another article:

"Mattrick has resigned, effective immediately, and Pincus described the departure as amicable in a call with GamesBeat today. The move isn’t a complete surprise since Mattrick hasn’t yet succeeded in turning around the fortunes of the social gaming company."

"Zynga didn’t describe the change as a firing, and Pincus noted that a mutual agreement between him and Mattrick triggered this move."

You sure Mattrick made Zynga profitable again? Or are you going to believe what Pincus said in this article?

[Jedislayer]

I'd crack up if he returned to Ms and replaced humble Phil Spencer

[SuicideKing]

I think the Xbox community would cry, I know I would not be pleased. I do think he got blamed for EVERYTHING that was going wrong with xb1, which of course involved many more people than himself. But as head honcho it was his responsibility to make changes. Phil is doing a great job and actually plays and enjoys games he is doing a great job and he seems like a "real" person.

[Jedislayer]

I agree with your statement. I'd think it'd be messed up though if he was replaced because the article said the old ceo's were returning to zynga. so it could happen.

[ArnoDorian]

ofc i doubt MS would re-hire Don back replacing phil because that would be an illogical move

[Zeref]

Well he was a master of marketing. Remember when MS had an E3 on a huge screen in the middle of NY time square? That was him.

And because of him Kinect sold a shit ton of units. Even though it didn't work as well as it should have.

I wouldn't mind seeing him come back. But he definitely shouldn't be replacing Phil. He should be head of marketing.

[XanderZane]

You'd have to be on crack to think that would happen. Microsoft already knows how great Phil is doing in the position and seeing the millions of positive comments from the XBox fanbase. There's no way in hell they would replace Phil Spencer now. XBox One is receiving positive news on a weekly bases and it's mostly due to Phil Spencer and his team. Maybe he'll go and work for Sony next. That would be a trip. If anything Don needs to retire.

[Blank]

Man not even a broke mobile company dont want anything to do with him and I cant blame them they are still in a rut and he should probably try another profession maybe lobbyist? Because I cant imagine how he convinced people in Zynga and MS that he can bring the company prosperity.

[audiophile101]

Good to see you didn't read the article

[Blank]

I wont deny it, I didnt but its because my interest stops here at the comment section and the lite summary is enough thanks for the point out happy gaming : )

[OrangePowerz]

The article is full of PR BS. You think Zynga will say that he did a bad job and admit that they made a mistake? It's just spin to make it look like he did a good job and more importantly that the people who hired him made the right decision.

Their stock is traded at 2.90$ that's an extremely poor stock value. Zynga is nowhere to be seen and they got their asses handed over by their competition. They went from "leader" with all their rip off "games" to completely unimportant and Mattrick did nothing to bring them back.

[S2Killinit]

what the heck is Zynga? I've never heard of it. Or have i? maybe they do need a new CEO

[GryestOfBluSkies]

they make mobile games

[S2Killinit]

How come?

Edit: *sorry this was supposed to go under Stanr's comment.

[Gh05t]

Farmville creator if i remember right.

[stanr]

I envy you at this moment.

[Femto]

LOL Don Mattrick done fucked up again

http://i.minus.com/igbtjpTc...

[SaveFerris]

I wonder if he'd be in line to return to Microsoft?

[Femto]

LOL HELL NO. that will never happen

[OpieWinston]

You don't leave one of the biggest tech companies in the world and expect to come back. Especially when you almost ran their gaming division into the ground and his replacement has pretty much outpaced the last console while also unifying all their platforms.

Satya would probably laugh at him.

[SaveFerris]

That Nokia guy (Stephen Elop) came back, at least for a while.

[DLConspiracy]

They fired him for a reason. Besides Phil Spencer has turned Xbox around. Don has nothing to do with Xbox nor will he ever again. Good riddance.

[slutface]

Lol flop!

[Masterchief_thegoat]

all I gotta say is damm. nobody wants to work with him

[xX1NORM1Xx]

nobody hire him unless u hate your company

[Lucreto]

Microsoft: We would like to welcome back Don Mattrick back to Microsoft and to take the role of President of the Interactive Entertainment division. We would like to thank Phil Spencer for his work and for stepping aside.

That would be the worst case scenario. I doubt it would happen.

[OC_MurphysLaw]

Sony would like to welcome Don Matrick to head up Sony North America.... the N4G site would burn

Nintendo, we would like to welcome Don Matrick to head up Nintendo North America and take Regis place. Don's expertise in bringing about family friendly devices like Kinect and motion control is a perfect fit for our vision of fun and future with NX.... Nintendo would shut down within 2 yrs.

As unlikely as these scenarios are ....DM is like cancer...hard to kill and he keeps popping up in random spots.

[OrangePowerz]

I was hoping he would stay at Zynga forever because if he doesn't work there some other company might be stupid enough to hire him and ruin their products.

[TheTwelve]

7 days late for that joke

[Lucreto]

Not a joke, a nightmare.

[bleedsoe9mm]

old boy system is the only way he got another chief operations job , the consumer didn't like the ms proposed console is one thing , but it wasn't well thought out or communicated , which only comes from the top .

[fitfox]

The kinect guy departs? good.

[Mrveryodd]

Could someone please tell me what good things this guy has done?
So far I haven't seen anything he has done to deserve the outrages money he has been paid.
I could be wrong but he seems a useless.

[Zeref]

He is a master of marketing. Because of him Kinect and Xbox 360 sold like hot cakes. Even though Kinect 1 was lacking. And Xbox 360 was the underdog.

[StormLegend]

No one wants that trash lol.

[secretcode]

I wonder what brand he'll nearly kill next.

[StrawberryDiesel420]

Who would want this moron after the crap features of always online, console check in, no used games that he conceptualized when working with M$ on XBone?. He should be shot for the damage he did to the XBOX brand. It's amazing that someone so stupid is or was actually in a position of authority/power.

[rainslacker]

I'm pretty sure the concepts involved with the original X1 vision were done by committee, and don wasn't the one to come up with them. I honestly don't see him that much of a visionary to be able to design a console on that level. That's like saying that Jack Tretton designed the PS3. They're smart guys, good business people(more or less), and great at marketing, but they are not system designers. At best, he may have helped flesh out the policies to be what they were, and maybe came up with one or two ideas on implementation since he was likely part of that committee.

The policies revolving around the X1 were set up with MS ultimate goals in mind. They just tried to rush them the wrong way. Don didn't ruin anything other than the delivery of those policies to the general public.

[ArnoDorian]

Don Mattrick should work for Justin Bieber if ya know what i mean ;)

[Svinya]

So would I for the right money..

[MultiConsoleGamer]

Well, that was fast.

[MasterCornholio]

Now which company he will contaminate?

[ScorpiusX]

Well talk about Irony. Stay the hell away from MS

[DarXyde]

Don almost ruined XBOX, but XBOX made some great improvements under his supervision. Yes, there were down years, but he did wonders for XBOX 360. Just not XBOX One.

Say what you will about Mattrick, but everyone's been pretty much demonizing him for what happened with XBOX One. That's just overlooking the wonder years for one bad mistake. It's also widely assumed that Mattrick's handling of XBOX One is the ONLY reason gamers were deterred from XBOX One. Couldn't it just be because PlayStation 4 was looking like a better option?

All things considered, him leaving Zynga isn't unusual. Mattrick doesn't stay in one place for long, ever. He did good work at EA and Microsoft had a great run with the XBOX 360 under his influence. Can't really speak for Zynga, but I'm sure he's not hurting for money. He commanded, what, a ~$50 million annual salary? He could've retired after the first year and the Mattrick family would be taking vacations every year at Hard Rocks around the world for generations. Wherever he goes, he's done enough great work that he's not going to be begging for opportunities.

Let's stop the mindless Mattrick hate.

[rainslacker]

I've never been a big fan of Mattrick. Can't say why, just a general feeling about him I guess. But I never considered him incompetent. The X1 reveal and subsequent interviews weren't really like him IMO. He's always been confident in what he said, but during that time he seemed almost arrogant, and he's not really like that. He's a pretty decent guy from all I've heard.

[DarXyde]

Indeed. While I don't care much for him, it would be remiss to be so dismissive of his accomplishments.

The problem, I think, is people make assessments based on their emotions in these cases. You can berate a player from your favorite football team for missing a catch, but obviously they aren't amateurs. Let's see you do better.

Same case with Donny boy here. Everyone is so quick to write him off as the harbinger of Xbox One's woes (if you can even call them that since it's doing pretty well). It's so sad when we can overlook the good we do for one bad goof. Seriously, Xbox One made a great turnaround. Why are people still bitter?

I have tremendous respect for Kutaragi, but I know how it seemed like he was working to destroy his lovechild, Playstation. Yeah, he messed up with PS3, the company turned it around in the most amazing way, and no one should be angry. At least Mattrick's statements and such were pretty much nullified before release. PS3 suffered a bit thanks to crazy Ken. Still, no hard feelings, it's fixed.

The Internet can be a little tender and begrudgingly difficult.

[Father__Merrin]

Don mattrick should come back to Microsoft imo

[kenwonobi]

ZING!!! a..

[OUROSMAG]

This guy should just throw in the towel..

[plmkoh]

Typical executive behavior these days, get hired into a random non-related company by a recruitment firm (which cashes in on the bonus), do nothing for a year or so, maybe then layoff a few employees and tout it as good news and golden parachute your way out with millions leaving the company in ruins. Then rinse and repeat with another recruitment firm.

[Pogmathoin]

Is he hated more than EA or Ubisoft?

[L0wlifeGamer]

Mattrick failed to be the Don. Again!

[Nilla_Nate]

This guy is one of the most worthless pieces of shit this planet has ever seen. I can't imagine getting paid millions to fuck over two companies and get two golden parachutes. I'd like to take a sledgehammer to this fucks face. I'll never forgive this draconian cum guzzler for what he tried to pull at MS-which they will never recover from this generation.

[lodossrage]

To be fair, Zynga was already reporting losses and failing well before he even took the job. So it's not like he took a good company and made it crap.

Oddly enough, the founder is taking the job back, which isn't saying much because it was under his watch that the company started to falter in the first place.

Zynga may just be doomed to fall.

[nickster]

At E3 he will make his return to MS as there grand finally!

[DOOMZ]

That guy almost single handedly destroyed the XBOX ONE! Im shocked anyone hired him...

[ServerBOT]

Just in it for the money.

[Plagasx]

I always hated that guys face for some reason...

[stanr]

So they are replacing one failure with another? Personally the failure of Zynga is proof that freemuim and casual gaming industry is unstable while real game developers will still be strong in the market.

[Revvin]

Don Mattrick's leadership made me hold off buying an XBOX One because he seemed to want to focus the XBOX brand on being a multimedia machine that just happened to play games. With Phil Spencer at the helm the brand slowly moved towards being more gaming focussed and so recently I bought an XBOX One. Mattrick didn't seem to have a clear idea of where XBOX was going or indeed where it came from and I'd not want to see him back at Microsoft.

[DJ]

Zynga's still around?

[Last_Boss]

I'm crying laughing at this.

[scark92]

Who is going to be the Don now?

[Wickerman1972]

Guy destroyed the Xbox brand. Who does he plan to ruin next?

[iNFAMOUZ1]

he should be ceo of sony ;)
and he was the cause of what happened with xbox 1, he approved them and came up with them.

[Apex13]

This idiot doesn't belong in gaming. He needs to find another business market to go into

[cruzngta]

The Don is MS bound again!!!! More Kinect2.0 and more TV TV TV at E3!!!! Phil is gonna have a new boss soon!!!!

[Ryan741]

The guy goes from one multi million paying job to another, must be doing something right.

[peshkavusCA]

How this article becomes infested with PS fanboy rants against Xbox is beyond low.

[WizzroSupreme]

Zynga is better off without him.

[Jdoki]

This guy is just toxic. How did he ever get to CEO level.

It's almost as if some people luck in to a high level job and then just roll from one high paid job to the next, creating disaster, but cashing out every time..

[Leaguer]

hope ms takes him back........just for the lulz