6 ms·

Zynga Confirms Xbox Head Don Mattrick As New CEO

88 points by triketora 13y ago

jcdavis 13y ago
Looks like Pincus is staying around though, which seems odd. If the board is unhappy with his performance (and rightfully so), wouldn't starting fresh be a better move?
- sdoowpilihp 13y ago
  Did you read the part where it stated Mark Pincus has a 61% voting control in Zynga?
- Luc 13y ago
  If you have very little data about a situation, and then start reasoning using only that bit of data, it's very likely you'll get a different result from those who have hundreds of times more data.
- capkutay 13y ago
  Pincus already cashed out and has enough money to live a lavish, comfortable lifestyle. Having someone else take on the task of turning around a publicly held company on a day to day basis is probably very appealing to him. Not to mention, Wall Street likes seeing this type of behavior from companies performing poorly.
- hkmurakami 13y ago
  Even in a somewhat controversial/borderline-hostile CEO replacement by the board, the ex-CEO often retains some sort of position in the company (say, a seat on the Board)
- wilfra 13y ago
  the board == mark pincus This was his decision. With a lot of outside pressure, certainly, but it was up to him.
sriramk 13y ago
Great hire for Zynga. Don is hugely respected at Microsoft and was actually tipeed to be a potential Ballmer successor. Big loss for Microsoft.
- mtgx 13y ago
  Interesting. It seems a lot of "potential Ballmer successors" have been let go from Microsoft in the past few years, from Ray Ozzie to Sinofsky, and now this one, too. I wonder what this means for Zynga - more DRM?
  - sriramk 13y ago
    I don't this in the same vein. I think Don was well-liked all around.
    - runevault 13y ago
      Did that hold up after the One debacle that lead to a total about face? And he was at least part of it, with comments like "if you can't take advantage of the xbox one, we have a solution for you. The xbox 360" (not exact wording but you get the point). I could very much imagine the whole mess costing him a lot within MS and leading to him looking to go somewhere else and start over.
  - theseanstewart 13y ago
    It means you're going to be forced to use the front facing camera on the iPhone in order to play games.
  - wilfra 13y ago
    There is no more certain path to an early retirement from Microsoft than being perceived as a threat to Steve Ballmer for the CEO job.
    - deleted 13y ago
      [deleted]
- 13y ago
potatolicious 13y ago
With what little info we have, this seems actually like a good move. Part of Zynga's core problem is that their games are frequently more psycological tweakery than legitimately rewarding or fun. Importing someone who comes from "real" gaming seems like a good move in this regard. Hopefully this means Zynga intends to move towards "fun games with microtransactions" and away from "pretty one-armed bandits with microtransactions".
- pwf 13y ago
  What does the head of the Xbox division have to do with the fun factor of the games? I would understand this comment if we were talking about the head of Bioware or Blizzard, but this guy seems pretty far removed the actual games.
  - potatolicious 13y ago
    Before being head of Xbox he was head of EA - he's not a stranger to the gaming industry from the dev side.
    - pwf 13y ago
      Even then I find myself asking how much fun games that EA was heavily involved in were...
      - sgk284 13y ago
        If MSFT and EA don't do it for you, he was an exec at EA through an acquisition of his game company, Distinctive Software.
- beaumartinez 13y ago
  Xbox One, real gaming? A machine that was going to lock all your gaming purchases down, so you couldn't even share your physical discs with friends? A company that charged $10,000 for patches—even trivial ones fixing serious, game-breaking bugs? Microsoft's gaming division has become the definition a "pretty one-armed bandit with microtransactions", and no doubt thanks to Mattrick.
JL2010 13y ago
One thing that has gotten lost in the noise of Xbox One's marketing mishap and the targeting of Mattrick is perhaps his history as a true entrepreneur. While it hasn't shown so lately, Don does come from a grassroots background in gaming as a former 17 year old co-founder and programmer of Distinctive Software in 1982. His company was acquired by EA which likely put him on the path to executive level success. A kind of exit that some founders dream about. It's easy to make a judgement and discredit or target him but I do believe he has genuine passion for gaming and hopefully he can infuse some of that in a place like Zynga.
- kabdib 13y ago
  Passion for gaming is great. He has a /lot/ of that. However: Not a very good technical leader, extremely isolated from the troops (even the principal ones who are designing the new products) which badly affected direction and morale, and very bad at messaging (which I suspect is the /real/ reason he's going). Of course, what replaces him could be worse.
  - pandaman 13y ago
    > and very bad at messaging (which I suspect is the /real/ reason he's going). Was not he the guy who pushed for Kinect? I am not aware much about MS's internal politics but the timeline seems to match. If so, then the real reason, in my humble opinion, is this: Microsoft is now about to fight for the 8th generation with an underpowered yet $100 more expensive console.
- drawkbox 13y ago
  Mattrick has quite a nice background and he was a developer early on who worked on some fun titles, loads of credits at MobyGames (http://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,152/ http://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,15...) mostly as an executive now. He was at EA for a long time. Headed up the Kinect effort. I wonder if packaging it with XBone (pricing) and the recent PR and backsliding was part of this. This is strange though, Windows 8 launches and Sinofsky is gone. Then Xbox One set to launch and Mattrick goes.

88 points by triketora 13y ago

Looks like Pincus is staying around though, which seems odd. If the board is unhappy with his performance (and rightfully so), wouldn't starting fresh be a better move?

sdoowpilihp 13y ago
Did you read the part where it stated Mark Pincus has a 61% voting control in Zynga?
Luc 13y ago
If you have very little data about a situation, and then start reasoning using only that bit of data, it's very likely you'll get a different result from those who have hundreds of times more data.
capkutay 13y ago
Pincus already cashed out and has enough money to live a lavish, comfortable lifestyle. Having someone else take on the task of turning around a publicly held company on a day to day basis is probably very appealing to him. Not to mention, Wall Street likes seeing this type of behavior from companies performing poorly.
hkmurakami 13y ago
Even in a somewhat controversial/borderline-hostile CEO replacement by the board, the ex-CEO often retains some sort of position in the company (say, a seat on the Board)
wilfra 13y ago
the board == mark pincus This was his decision. With a lot of outside pressure, certainly, but it was up to him.

sriramk 13y ago

Great hire for Zynga. Don is hugely respected at Microsoft and was actually tipeed to be a potential Ballmer successor. Big loss for Microsoft.

mtgx 13y ago
Interesting. It seems a lot of "potential Ballmer successors" have been let go from Microsoft in the past few years, from Ray Ozzie to Sinofsky, and now this one, too. I wonder what this means for Zynga - more DRM?
- sriramk 13y ago
  I don't this in the same vein. I think Don was well-liked all around.
  - runevault 13y ago
    Did that hold up after the One debacle that lead to a total about face? And he was at least part of it, with comments like "if you can't take advantage of the xbox one, we have a solution for you. The xbox 360" (not exact wording but you get the point). I could very much imagine the whole mess costing him a lot within MS and leading to him looking to go somewhere else and start over.
- theseanstewart 13y ago
  It means you're going to be forced to use the front facing camera on the iPhone in order to play games.
- wilfra 13y ago
  There is no more certain path to an early retirement from Microsoft than being perceived as a threat to Steve Ballmer for the CEO job.
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
13y ago

potatolicious 13y ago

With what little info we have, this seems actually like a good move. Part of Zynga's core problem is that their games are frequently more psycological tweakery than legitimately rewarding or fun. Importing someone who comes from "real" gaming seems like a good move in this regard. Hopefully this means Zynga intends to move towards "fun games with microtransactions" and away from "pretty one-armed bandits with microtransactions".

pwf 13y ago
What does the head of the Xbox division have to do with the fun factor of the games? I would understand this comment if we were talking about the head of Bioware or Blizzard, but this guy seems pretty far removed the actual games.
- potatolicious 13y ago
  Before being head of Xbox he was head of EA - he's not a stranger to the gaming industry from the dev side.
  - pwf 13y ago
    Even then I find myself asking how much fun games that EA was heavily involved in were...
    - sgk284 13y ago
      If MSFT and EA don't do it for you, he was an exec at EA through an acquisition of his game company, Distinctive Software.
beaumartinez 13y ago
Xbox One, real gaming? A machine that was going to lock all your gaming purchases down, so you couldn't even share your physical discs with friends? A company that charged $10,000 for patches—even trivial ones fixing serious, game-breaking bugs? Microsoft's gaming division has become the definition a "pretty one-armed bandit with microtransactions", and no doubt thanks to Mattrick.

JL2010 13y ago

One thing that has gotten lost in the noise of Xbox One's marketing mishap and the targeting of Mattrick is perhaps his history as a true entrepreneur. While it hasn't shown so lately, Don does come from a grassroots background in gaming as a former 17 year old co-founder and programmer of Distinctive Software in 1982. His company was acquired by EA which likely put him on the path to executive level success. A kind of exit that some founders dream about. It's easy to make a judgement and discredit or target him but I do believe he has genuine passion for gaming and hopefully he can infuse some of that in a place like Zynga.

kabdib 13y ago
Passion for gaming is great. He has a /lot/ of that. However: Not a very good technical leader, extremely isolated from the troops (even the principal ones who are designing the new products) which badly affected direction and morale, and very bad at messaging (which I suspect is the /real/ reason he's going). Of course, what replaces him could be worse.
- pandaman 13y ago
  > and very bad at messaging (which I suspect is the /real/ reason he's going). Was not he the guy who pushed for Kinect? I am not aware much about MS's internal politics but the timeline seems to match. If so, then the real reason, in my humble opinion, is this: Microsoft is now about to fight for the 8th generation with an underpowered yet $100 more expensive console.
drawkbox 13y ago
Mattrick has quite a nice background and he was a developer early on who worked on some fun titles, loads of credits at MobyGames (http://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,152/ http://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,15...) mostly as an executive now. He was at EA for a long time. Headed up the Kinect effort. I wonder if packaging it with XBone (pricing) and the recent PR and backsliding was part of this. This is strange though, Windows 8 launches and Sinofsky is gone. Then Xbox One set to launch and Mattrick goes.