Report: Don Mattrick Leaving Microsoft for...Zynga? [UPDATE: It's Official]

Yaaaa.... lets go from Microsoft to Zanga. I guess once a thief always a thief.

http://www.itworld.com/windows/210395/microsoft-board-ballmer-underpaid-investors-fire-him-now-we-go-broke

http://www.winrumors.com/steve-jobs-describes-microsoft-as-irrelevant-in-biography-blames-ballmer/

http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2011/11/18/ballmer_board/

http://www.vanityfair.com/business/2012/08/microsoft-lost-mojo-steve-ballmer

http://seekingalpha.com/article/1254951-i-invested-in-microsoft-but-i-have-more-than-a-few-words-for-steve-ballmer

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/05/25/ballmer-must-go-einhorn-says/

Just to link a few articles.

jump ship!

That makes it seems hes super detached from the average person who buys video games.

And I still do not get why people are not happy with Ballmer. They need a business man to make decisions on what it said and what info is put out. Not some idiot who spouts out fake pity for the military or people with limited internet.

Or better yet someone who knows when NOT TO SAY ANYTHING.

Mattrick is one of the first Canadians I've disliked in a while.

And this explains a lot of his recent comments: http://www.businessinsider.com/don-mattrick-zynga-ceo-2013-7

Heres my thoughts: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Mattrick is the picture of entitlement.

So why is everyone freaking out Ballmer took over?

So you think they will snip PS4 release date?

There is zero chance that this wasn't in response to the Xbone. From his insults to the military crowd to the panning of the "future" it all had to fall on his shoulders. He was the public head for the xbone and I don't doubt it was similar internally. However It's far too late for that now. They waited way too long to announce it to the public that it's too late to backpedal because of reactions. You can tell this by their plan to rip out all of the online guts from the xbone with out replacing it with anything new. They gambled till the last minute on TV and the CLOUD but chickened out way too late to do anything meaningful to the xbone. Now it's too late for them to push it because if they do they basically hand everything to Sony.

Do you really think they could survive all this backlash and afford skipping out on a year of releases? They have to have something out by holiday or they are boned.

Microsoft probably asked him to leave after the Xbone debacle. It's a horrible design, horrible features, and alienated the existing 360 fan base. I'm sort of hoping Microsoft will scrap it and rework something that makes sense for next year.

As much as I really, really dislike Don Mattrick, I'm now 100% sure that I have no idea what XONE is beyond "a more powerful 360."

Because it doesn't make sense.

He needs a giant battleship that has a one to one scale replica of Swiss Alps on it for all that to snowboard down, anything less would be half-assing it.

Think of it this way: Allard is riding a white horse, riding a jet-ski on a snowboard right now. Why would he need Microsoft?

I still look forward to the day where Microsoft has a press conference and it opens with J Allard riding in on a white horse...that's riding a jet-ski....that's on a snowboard.

Let me keep my dream alive.

Even if Microsoft calls J Allard about this newly opened position, he would be like: "Nah, I'm good. Thanks."

"Zynga has redefined entertainment and brought social gaming to the mainstream"

SOCIAL GAMING HAS ALWAYS BEEN PART OF THE MAINSTREAM. SOCIAL GAMING IS MAINSTREAM.

Pardon me.

It'll be interesting to see where this goes, and whether or not it was a good move on his part. One thing is for sure, I would play FarmVille 2 more if it was on the iOS marketplace. Kind of irks me that its not there already.

Actually, now that I think about it, screw FarmVille. Give me CoasterVille on my iPad so I can stop using their piece of shit Java platform. Still confuses me why I can run large-scale games at 60fps+, but a Facebook Java/Flash game lags like a piece of crap.

He's found a company that appreciates the subtleties of being online all the time.

I don't know what to think about this. I kind of am glad that he's gone, but apparently he was very good behind the scenes. Also, if he did truly create the original idea of the X1, then he's pretty forward thinking. I just think that that thinking was too ahead of its time. It was something that needed to be rolled out slowly over the course of a few years because, as the embracing of the PS4 shows, the public is not ready for a Steam-like console.

I hope he is successful at Zynga. It sucks, but all this negative backlash probably forced him to leave MS.

He should part his hair on the left side now, in honor of the change.

Hes the COO man, thats more than a spokesman, hes the guy thats second in command, that means all decisions come through him.

Ahahahahahahaahahahahhahahahaahahahahah

Talk about a step down

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

Probably the best part of this scenario is that Mark Pincus is no longer CEO of Zynga. The company may be a sinking ship, but it was Pincus's incompetence that got them there. I'd say that Mattrick is a step up in that regard.

It makes sense really. It's been a while since Zynga pissed everyone off and Mattrick has been in the zone for like the last month. His first press release will be a retroactive $10/month subscription to Farmville.

I bet he took some of the fall for all the shit going on and told people that he would move on to help take the brunt of the pain. Why Zinga... he is just telling the world that he wants to die and never work on game again. Right?

Microsoft. STOP IT! I need a break from your crazy shit. STOP WITH THE CRAZY SHIT!

This does not inspire confidence in the Xbox one

I'm sure I'll continue to not care about Zynga.

Is it just me or does he have the kind of face that just makes you want to punch him?

Getting? It's been weird for a couple weeks now.

This is getting weird.

Good riddance. After taking over from Peter Moore, and destroying everything Moore had created with the 360 by moving focus to kinect, avatars, and apps, while killing off every good 1st party developer MS had that weren't profitable enough, he then sets everything in stone for the Xbox One to be the exact opposite of everything the Xbox 360 stood for, with its increased focus on TV and less than stellar hardware specs that obviously did not have the gamer or developer in mind ...... now he leaves.

Unfortunately, the damage is done and too many things are set in stone, but hopefully this leaves the door open for another great exec like a Peter Moore to take over and begin to turn things back around. Maybe in time for the next console release.

@maddman60620: I think the thing is that he was trying to make keeping your Xbox 360 hooked up look enticing, rather than turning it into a mandate the way Mattrick was going for. Basically more pimping Gold and less Big Brother.

@djou: Please tell me your joking??? Don was the head of the Xbox division not the whole of MS. Do a little reasearch on Google...

Also Don was a walking PR nightmare. Everything out of his mouth was condensing, arrogant, and offensive. If MS wasn't going to fire him outright he was going to be stuck in a very dark corner far away from the media spotlight.

So the future is brighter at Zynga than at Microsoft...?

Xbox One is already dead I guess.

@cubical said:

Good I saw this coming xbox started to suck when he took over back in 2010 or what ever it has been going downhill until we got to the new xbox crap. He don't know what people want. the xbox one in design and everything else was his final screw up.

That kinect crap mostly started under his control.

the xbox one design sucks balls and all this happend under his watch and direction.

Bring back J allard and peter moore!

J allard is the real deal that is why xbox 360 and the 1st xbox ruled and you could get the fucking oddworld games on the machine back then.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-06-13-right-now-oddworld-new-n-tasty-isnt-coming-to-xbox-one-or-xbox-360

Loading Video...

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That is how you make and launch a fucking game console.

LOL love the always connected, always hi-def, & always personalized...... you know when you think about it not much is going to change this gen they could've did the reveal beat for beat like this and had bruno mars perform and everyone would be licking the xbox one's boot right now, amazing what presentation could do.....

Next to Don Mattrick, yeah, it kinda is.

That said, it became pretty clear that J Allard had moved on to the Zune as his passion project pretty soon after the 360 launch.

Makes me wonder where he is now...

@cubical said:

Good I saw this coming xbox started to suck when he took over back in 2010 or what ever it has been going downhill until we got to the new xbox crap. He don't know what people want. the xbox one in design and everything else was his final screw up.

That kinect crap mostly started under his control.

the xbox one design sucks balls and all this happend under his watch and direction.

Bring back J allard and peter moore!

J allard is the real deal that is why xbox 360 and the 1st xbox ruled and you could get the fucking oddworld games on the machine back then.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-06-13-right-now-oddworld-new-n-tasty-isnt-coming-to-xbox-one-or-xbox-360

Loading Video...

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That is how you make and launch a fucking game console.

None of the stuff you linked was particularly impressive...

Well I called the part where the guy was going to get the boot but I never would have guessed that Zynga would be his next "step". Fantastic.

Ok

So the guy who ruined Microsoft is going to one of the shittiest game studios there is. Not all that surprising, actually.

It...

I...

This...and then last week...I can't--

WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?!

Oh yeah, I'm sure this was totally his decision. Yep.

Yeah. That company's been circling since their IPO, it's like they and Mattrick were made for one another.

I wonder if this will affect EA's CEO search. Insider scuttlebutt put Mattrick as the man that would take the CEO spot after the Xbox One launched.

Farmville now requires you to have a webcam in use the whole time.