Gaming News: Don Mattrick leaving Microsoft for Zynga

Wednesday's gaming news is that Don Mattrick, head of Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment division including X-Box, is leaving Microsoft to become the new CEO of Zynga. For those of you who don't know who Zynga is, Zynga is the company behind Farmville, Mafia War, and the like, so if you keep getting those annoying request for manure or what not, then now you know who to blame. Zynga's was originally doing quite well when they first started and Farmville reached its peak, but within the last year Zynga has seen their stock fall quite a  bit.

Now I don't know all of what was behind Mattrick's decision to leave Micros0ft, in fact I know next to nothing and am not interested enough to try and find out, but his timing couldn't have been worse. As it is now, it looks like he is getting out before he can be fired over the backlash the Xbox One garnered, possibly as a straw man for Microsoft.

Now, is it a good thing for him that he has become Zynga's new CEO?
Zynga has seen falling stock and people leaving their games in large numbers, forcing them to lay off workers and to close down the less popular Facebook games. Well, so far, the stocks appear to show some confidence in Mattrick's ability to bring the company back into the spotlight, since the announcement, Zynga's stock has risen a bit and looks to be the beginning for a steady climb, unless it doesn't.
We will just have to wait and see how things at Zynga are handled.


I know one thing though, I won't be clamering for the newest Farmville spin-off to be announced, and the game requests I get are going to be forgotten in my notification bar.

Thanks for reading!