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!

Schedule change/ Wednesday News

First of all, I would like to say sorry for not posting on Monday. But, cable is back online so we are good to go. Second, I am changing Wednesdays to gaming News, at least for now.

Ok, time for todays post.

The big news in gaming today, is that Microsoft has revised its DRM policy for Xbox One.
The most important effect this will have is that you WILL NOT have to connect your Xbox to the internet to play offline games. The only time the system will need to connect will be during first time set up. This goes for games downloaded off of Xbox Live as well.
The ability to sell, trade, and share games like you would for the 360 is now back as well. So Gamestop, you have been spared.
And finally, some good news to those who like to play games that normally aren't available in their country, regions have been removed, meaning the systems can be played in all areas of the world, government allowing, and games from across the world can be played as well. I foresee some hardcore RPG fans importing some JRPGs in the future.

Now, there were some features that were dropped as well. I won't go into details but most of them revolved around the cloud and your games library. Most specifically the ability to play your games library wherever you want without needing the disc.

All in all, it is good to see Microsoft actually listening to its fans. Sony, you might actually have some competition if Microsoft can keep it together.

Here is the link to the announcement from Microsoft's head of Interactive Entertainment.

That's all for today folks, be sure to check back for Throwback Friday!